A Cherished Posession

While not every project that I knit turns out like expected, there are certain projects that end up as favorites. These projects have a certain something in their color, their design, and the feel of the yarn that makes me return to them again and again. Sometimes these projects start out as favorites and sometimes they grow into that role but, either way, loosing one of these precious items can be downright depressing.

I experienced such sadness recently when I lost one mitt from my pair of Veylas. These were my absolute favorite pair of fingerless mitts (and I have lots of pairs) because of their Ysolda design and go-with-everything grey color. They became a favorite without me realizing it and, after loosing them, I knew that I needed to knit a new pair as similar as possible to the first.

Unfortunately, the colorway of the original yarn, KnitPicks Shimmer in Cumulus, was discontinued. I think the replacement yarn, Classic Elite MountainTop Vail, is a pretty good match (a new mitt is on the left, above, and the old mitt is on the right), even though the new mitts lack some of the color subtlety. Still, the light grey color promises to compliment most of my clothing.

The one thing I learned when making this pattern the first times is that while the Veyla pattern is truly beautiful, the key to making it shine is good blocking. I admit to obsessively blocking my Veylas again this time. It took a lot of pins but I think the cuff pattern looks all the better for it.

And to compliment the beautifully blocked cuffs, I got lucky and was able to find 8 more coordinating buttons from my late Great Aunt's button collection . The buttons were one of my favorite details on my first pair and I'm happy that my new pair will also have this special touch.

The new pair is not quite the same as the first, but I know that they will be just as loved. I guess I'm pretty lucky that this story has a happy ending. It required a bit of work on my part, but it's worth it to have a cherished piece of knitwear back in my possession.