A tale of two mittens - part II

The second mittens tale has a happier ending. It relates to a project I have been meaning to knit for some time - a pair of fingerless mitten wristwarmers to separate my delicate wrists from the cold desk on winter mornings.

I suffer quite badly from RSI symptoms in my wrists, elbows and upper arms, caused mostly by computer use but aggravated by knitting, crochet, cycle riding and various other things. Regular deep tissue massage keeps the worst of it at bay but I have noticed that in the winter my wrists stiffen up quite quickly when exposed to the cold desk top for more than half an hour or so.

With winter fast approaching and a bit of a lull in knitting projects, I decided I really should get on to this one.

The pattern is the Fishtail Wristwarmers by Alexandra Brinck (can't get away from the fish!) and the yarn is a ball of something hairy and squeaky that I bought for £1 in the bargain box at IKnit a year or more ago. I bought it for its glorious colour, it had no label but I think it's probably a combination of manmade fibre (the squeakiness and lack of stretch I notice when I knit with it) and mohair (the hairiness).



The end result is extremely pleasing - looks great, fits like a glove (sorry, couldn't resist!) and keeps my wrists lovely and warm.

The pattern is not as clearly written as it could be so if you are a beginner or a novice knitter, you may need someone more experienced to help you with it. But this is not a criticism at all - it's pretty close to the type of instructions I would give if I was writing out a free pattern - just to say you need to know what you are doing, and take a chance at times.

I managed to knit wristwarmers with two different details at the thumb, misreading the pattern the second time. I couldn't be bothered to frog the second one because of the squeaky, sticky yarn, and don't think it's any the worse for that.