A few weeks
ago, I went to the Hokusai exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (with
Geoff). Of course, one of the highlights
was The Wave – in fact, 2 highlights as they had 2 different prints (a few
hundred apart in the print run) which meant you could see how the precision of
the lino cut would deteriorate over the course of prints.
However,
the exhibition was considerably larger than the well know Wave and Mt Fuji
related prints. The botanical and bird
prints were really beautiful – softer colours of green, peach and pink, and of
interesting birds and flowers. Ultimately, I was captivated by the water prints
and my mind immediately turned to the waves mittens in Making Magazine, issue 3,
as well as some tonal blue Infinity Twist yarn in my stash, and off I went.
I cast on
for the middle size, knit the requisite ribbing and moved in to the colour work
pattern. I was particularly captivated
by the long, slow growing thumb gusset. It
started on the 3rd round of colourwork and stretched out over 28
rows. I find that it fits really well.
I made
mitts, rather than mittens, given the climate in Melbourne. Since I didn’t have the space over the
fingers to transition from waves to dots, I changed the colourwork to separate
those 2 elements. I also decreased 6
stitches before I moved into the top ribbing to get a closer fit.
Again, due
to lack of space I changed the thumb.
This time I simply finished in stockinette and ribbing in the background
colour as I didn’t fancy colourwork over such a small circumference!
