B.warm

B.warm Mittens by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud

What Is Being Made

B.warm is a pair of women's medium mittens designed by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud. These are constructed in the round using stranded colorwork techniques, creating a traditional patterned mitten with visual interest from multiple yarn colors worked simultaneously throughout the design.

Construction Techniques

This intermediate-level knitting project employs several advanced mitten-making techniques:

• In-the-round construction: The mittens are knitted circularly rather than flat, eliminating the need for seaming and creating a seamless, professional finish.
• Provisional cast on: Using waste yarn and a crochet hook, stitches are temporarily cast on and later picked up, allowing for a clean, finished edge on the cuff.
• Corrugated rib: A ribbed cuff that alternates knit and purl stitches in different colors, creating a textured, elastic edge that fits snugly around the wrist.
• Stranded colorwork: Two or more colors are carried and worked simultaneously across rounds, creating a Fair Isle-style pattern throughout the mitten body.
• Thumb gusset: Increases are worked to create a shaped opening for the thumb, ensuring proper fit and mobility.
• Traditional Latvian decreasing: A specialized decrease method used at the mitten top for a refined, traditional finish at the crown.

Stitches Used

The pattern utilizes fundamental knitting stitches combined in colorwork sequences:

• Knit stitch (K): The primary stitch forming the fabric base.
• Purl stitch (P): Used in the corrugated rib cuff to create texture and contrast.
• Chain stitch (Ch): Worked with waste yarn on a crochet hook for the provisional cast on method.

Yarn and Materials

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in DK weight (double knit), which provides excellent stitch definition for colorwork. The pattern requires one 50-gram ball each of three colors: SH 164 (main color), SH 158 (contrast color), and SH 166 (second contrast color). Each ball yields 191 yards or 175 meters, providing ample yardage for a pair of mittens in women's medium size.

Needles: Size 3.5mm / US 4 circular needles or double-pointed needles (dpns). The pattern emphasizes using needles that achieve the correct gauge of 28 stitches over 10 centimeters (or 4 inches) in the stranded colorwork pattern.

Additional supplies: Waste yarn and crochet hook for the provisional cast on, stitch markers to denote round beginnings and pattern repeats, mitten blockers for finishing and shaping, and a darning needle for weaving in yarn ends.

Sizing and Gauge

These mittens are designed to fit women's medium hands. Achieving the correct gauge—28 stitches and 10 centimeters in stranded colorwork—is essential for proper fit and is emphasized in the pattern instructions.