Knitsonik Mitten #1

I've knit my first Knitsonik mitten. As a reminder, I started with this inspiration:

Chose this palette (ended up not using the yellow):

Figured out some charts, and then started to knit.*

Some things really worked, and other didn't so much, but the whole point of swatching in this process is to play around and see what works and what doesn't. This is hard for me, but probably really good for me, too. 

I couldn't accept that the swatch would just be decoration, so I took a risk and knit the swatch as a mitten.

I think one of the sections that worked the best was the cuff. I did a double cuff. The inside is plain brown, because all gardens start with a base of brown dirt. I knit approximately 20 rows of plain brown, put in a purl row, and then started the patterning. When I'd done the same number of patterned rows as I'd done plain, I folded the inside of the cuff, held the two layers together, and knit them together on the next round. This is not as easy as I make it sound, and my cuff's a bit wonky. It wasn't wonky enough I needed to rip, so I didn't.

Anyway, the pattern part of the cuff is inspired by the path in the photo.

The circular flowers are the pink flowers from the back, right side of the photo. The green vine and leaves represent the abundance of green foliage.

The stars represent the balloon flowers. The heart I added because I needed a small motif for the decrease portion of the mitten, and I'm kitschy and adorable like that.

The section that really didn't work is the green/mist section between the stars and the circular flowers. The outline is done in the light mist color, and I think it was just too light to show up properly. Still, that's what experimentation is for.

I contemplated the thumb for awhile. My first inclination was to match it to the mitten exactly, which means I would be changing colors every couple of rounds. For a 30-stitch thumb, that sounded like madness. Not only would I have a lot of yarn ends that would bulk up the material of the thumb when I wove them in, but I thought I might lose the will to knit before I reached the top of the thumb. Instead, I used the same pink (blush) for the whole thumb and just switched the background color once. I feel fine with the way it turned out.

A surprise for me is how much I love the palm! I think it's beautiful. This is the same pattern I used on the Swirly Mitts 2.0.

I'll make its mate soon, but perhaps I'll allow the sting of that many ends to weave in fade a bit before I do.

*This would look better blocked, but I'm not blocking it until I have its mate finished. Use your pretend eyes and imagine that it's blocked, please.