Bonham Mitts

I have just finished the Bonham mitts that I was knitting at the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate at the end of last month.  They are a Christmas present for my daughter, so I've timed it well.  Not a surprise present - she chose the colours and tried on the first mitt during the knitting so that I could get the length right.

The yarn is Rowan Donegal Lambswool Tweed, discontinued long ago.  I was given several skeins in different colours a few years ago, and it has been languishing in my stash ever since.  I thought it would be right for these mitts, because the recommended yarn is Rowan Fine Tweed (also now discontinued). The Donegal Lambswool is a similar weight.  The colours are called Blue Mist and Pickle.  Blue Mist is fairly straightforward, but pickles come in all sorts of colours. But the yarn is the colour of Branston pickle, so perhaps that is what the name refers to.

The mitt design is by Angharad Thomas, and based on a pair of gloves dated 1818 that were sold by Bonhams the auctioneers a year or two ago.  (You can see the original gloves on Angharad's blog, here.)  It's an interesting construction too - all the increases for the thumb gusset are on one side, not on both sides as is usually done.  So the thumb on the second mitt has to be a mirror image of the first.  And on one side of the thumb gusset, the rows of stitches are in the same direction as those on the palm:

   
and on the other side, where all the increases are, the rows of stitches are at an angle to the palm:

It's an intriguing effect.

I'm very pleased with the finished mitts.  They are wrapped up and under the Christmas tree, and I'm sure Susie will like them too.