Fair Isle

The KnitPicks catalogue arrived last week and I was very intrigued by the photo on the cover. It was of Fair Isle Mitts in a star pattern using several colours. The kit was very reasonably priced but being one who likes to start projects NOW and likes to make use of the Internet for free or discounted items, I searched Ravelry under the following key words "fair isle mittens free". And this is what came up. Now, the photo doesn't show the lovely star pattern on the back of the mitts but Ravelry had 97 people's versions so I could see what the back of a finished mitt actually looks like. This pattern also used only 4 colours of fingering (4 ply) weight yarn instead of the 6 that the KnitPicks pattern used.

Man, do they knit up fast! I started them at about 4pm today and this is what they looked like before I turned in for the night at 1pm. Somehow I screwed up and didn't cast on enough stitches for the corrugated ribbing on the cuff so I added 4 stitches in the first row after the ribbing to bring the stitch count up to what was required to do the pattern. As I am a tight knitter, I'm knitting the mitt inside out. The floats are on the outside (not shown) and it is preventing them from being too tight.
I should be done the first mitt this evening.

In the photo of the palm side (on the right), the contrasting waste yarn can be seen. This is where the thumb will go. Once I finish the body of the mitt and graft the top, I'll pick out the waste yarn and pick up the live stitches, add two stitches on each side of the thumb and finish it in the round.

Have I mentioned how much I love knitting in the round with one circular needle?