Surprise Mittens

Every once and a while, I think of a craft project so nerdy that I just have to make it. The impetus for my most recent of these projects was HiKoo's Abracadabra color-changing yarn. And my brain naturally made things more complex by insisting that I use this yarn in a fair isle project.

However, the result is just amazing, as shown in the following video when I expose a "fresh" side of a mitten to sunlight. I just love the way that the zigzags appear from nothing.

What's not being said is that in doing color-changing fair isle, I ended up doing "two"-color, white-on-white knitting. Thankfully, the color change yarn was very shiny against the wool, but it was still much easier to knit these mittens outside on a sunny day. For reference, here is the indoor view:

Oh, and did I mention the pattern was in Swedish and modified? The book I have has since been published in English, but I managed to make my version work by inferring Swedish knitting words and using the provided chart.

So, yes, sometimes I like a good challenge. White-on-white, color changing fair isle modified from a Swedish pattern was a crazy idea, but I think that the awesomeness of the results made it all worth it.