Mitten Garland Advent Calendar – Mitten #6

We are on #6, you guys! That is one-fourth the way through!

This mitten features a little angel in a starry sky. I adapted the angel from one used in the Christmas knitting book, 55 Christmas Balls to Knit by Arne & Carlos. This book is a great ideas resource for this project.

Download the Advent Calendar Mitten 6 Chart. (I added a little something extra to the chart for those of you who keep forgetting to start the thumb gusset on row 13.) When knitting these don’t stress out too much about the placement of the “stars,” I just put them in really randomly. Even add more if you want to give yourself shorter floats.

There has been a lot of talk on the forum this week about blocking these mittens. It might seem silly to be blocking something that doesn’t need to be a particular size, but it really does improve they way they look. Here is this week’s mitten before blocking.

The Latvian braid curls over, some of my float catches are pretty obvious and the shape is just not as sharp. Blocking allows the yarn to bloom you to shape the mitten.

I go pretty basic when it comes to blocking. I let the mitten soak in cool water with a little mild soap for 15 – 30 minutes. Rinse with cool water until the soap is out and gently squeeze out the water. Then I lay the mitten flat on a dish towel and shape it. I fold the towel over the top and just let it dry. This works well for me, because I’m pretty happy with the initial shape and size of my mittens.

For something a little more shape forming, you can make a blocking form like knit-along member Chumily did.

She just cuts a cardboard box to the shape and size she wants her mittens and then covers it in plastic wrap. After soaking the mittens they go on the form to dry. Brilliant!

Just a reminder for those who might be new, we are using the same written pattern for all the mittens, Mitten Advent Calendar Pattern, and there is a new chart every Monday.