Soak Mitts – Cuff au Lait

Once I had the opportunity to take a class from Fiona Ellis.  She's lovely and incredibly talented and a funny and engaging teacher.  In that class she spoke to us about an upcoming project that she was working on with Lorna's Laces (yarn company) and Soak (wool wash experts).

It turns out that Fiona likes to match her knitted accessories to her nail polish. She then brought out four pattern samples of fingerless mitts that she had designed.  The plan was for Soak and Lorna's Laces and Fiona to design and package a "Soak Box" pattern, yarn and scented soak product with a nail polish that matched the yarn.  I'm not usually drawn in by nail polish, since I only ever wear it on my toes, but because I got to try these mitts on, I was hooked.

Cuff half finished

The pattern and color that I've started here is the Cuff au Lait.  It looks like a pot of smoky grey mixed with coffee with cream and then net result is one of the loveliest and unique neutral colors.  The pattern is really special too.  It features a fold over cuff that you actually knit half of, join in the round and the turn inside-out to continue down the hand.  It's really clever.

What I remember about the other patterns is that they all had some really unique feature as well.  The magenta mitts have a cabled pattern and the thumb hole come right out of a crossed cable intersection.  The pale pink mitts have that cable transition to i-cord that is one of those brilliant Fiona signature design elements.  And the turquoise lace mitts have an eyelet line that ends up bordering the thumb gusset.  I'm a sucker for perfect details, and these mitts have those in spades.

It's been a fun and quick project and I hope to have them finished and blocked for you to see soon.  I might actually paint my nails for the photo shoot.