Chawton Mittens — Re-released!

Long-time readers of this blog will remember my Chawton Mittens, which were originally published in the inaugural issue of the Jane Austen Knits magazine all the way back in 2011. Well, the rights reverted back to me after a year, and re-releasing that beloved pattern has been on my to-do list since then. Today, my friends, I’ve finally done it!

Chawton Mittens — including brand new pattern photography!

Moment of SQUEE

I literally just did a dance in my chair — at the office, no less — on seeing Maria’s finished pair of Chawton Mittens in her blog post. These are the first completed Chawtons I’ve seen (aside from the original sample pair). She had a few technical difficulties, but the results are still outstanding. Way to go, Maria!

Maria's Chawton Mittens

Chawton Mittens update

Interweave has now made the patterns from the (dare I say it) outstanding special issue, Jane Austen Knits, available for individual download.

That means that my Chawton Mittens pattern can now be yours for $5.50 US as a standalone pattern. You can still buy the entire magazine, either as a PDF download, a Zinio subscription, or a printed copy, of course!

(Can I just say how surreal it is, STILL, to see my name on the Interweave website?)

Chawton Mittens

Rav link for Chawton Mittens

 

Cameos Your Way

The Chawton Mittens are, I hope, utterly Austen. But they really don’t have to be. Cameos are really trendy these days, whether they feature classic Grecian goddesses or something a little more quirky. There is absolutely nothing saying that you have to knit the Chawton Mittens as designed; you could easily use them as a framework to show off your own allegiances.

Chawton Mittens — Insider Tips

There is one potentially tricky section of the Chawton Mittens: the cameos. Traditional fair-isle patterns avoid long stretches of one colour, specifically because it’s hard to maintain tension when you have long floats of the unused colour strung along behind the work. (Also, those long strands are easily snagged on fingertips, rings, etc.) But with the Chawton Mittens, the cameos are the main design feature, and the whole definition of a silhouette is that it’s just an outline. I had to unvent a technique for dealing with the resulting long strands.

Inspiration for Chawton Mittens

So, the magazine is officially out! I can now talk and talk and talk about it as much as I want. (You’ve been warned.)

The call for submissions for Jane Austen Knits came out last fall, and I was immediately captivated; I have an inordinately geeky soft spot for Jane, specifically, and the Regency period in general. I’d only barely dabbled in design, at that point, but I knew I wanted to at least try to design something for this publication.