Squuueeee!! I’ve got a pattern in a book! In an actual physical little book! Whilst you may not be quite as delighted as I am, I’m hoping you’ll love the design I’ve come up with.
Allow me to introduce the Iska Mitts which are appearing in Wool on the Exe Book 1 which, as you might have guessed, has been produced by Wool on the Exe.
Wool on the Exe is a yarn store in Devon that brings local knitters together to socialise and make items for charity. They specialise in beautiful British yarns, especially those produced locally in Devon and Cornwall.
Back in April / May time whilst lockdown was going on here in the UK I saw a call out for submissions for, either local designers or designers inspired by Devon and the surrounding area, to come up with something that might be suitable to appear in a book they were putting together.
Well I do love a bit of a suggestive brief, and as a family we’ve enjoyed many happy holidays down in that part of the world, so I felt inspired to submit an idea – which was then excitingly accepted.
The Iska Mitts were inspired by the River Exe, which flows along the length of Devon, and whose name derives from ‘Iska’ meaning ‘water’ or ‘abounding in fish’.
The fingerless mitts are worked in textured crochet stitches that represent the movement of water and waves. The pattern starts with the cuff, worked flat and then joined. The hand is then picked up from the cuff and worked in the round with thumb gusset shaping and I’ve included two sizes for medium or larger hands. I would say that this is an easy to make fingerless mitt pattern suitable for advanced beginners.
❤️️ SAVE ISKA MITTS ON RAVELRY ❤️️
I used a new yarn to me called Fyberspates Vivacious DK which is a robust high twist 100% Merino wool! When you say merino I always think it’s going to be gorgeous and it was, and for a hand dyed yarn it’s really robust, you can machine wash it (which is a bonus in my book).
The double knit (light worsted) yarn comes in a proper twisted skein and the colourway I used for the Iska Mitts was called Denim (Shade 831) which, as you can imagine, is a mixture of dark and mid blues reminiscent of denim jean.
Now it just so happens that I’ve recently reached the milestone of 4K followers on Instagram so I’ve decided, to coincide with the launch of the book, to do a giveaway of a copy of the book over on Instagram.
I’m waiting for my copy of the book but when I receive it I’m going to take a photo for the giveaway, just so you can see it but I’m keeping that copy, what I’ll do is purchase a new copy and get it sent directly from Wool on the Exe directly to the winners door – so make sure you look out for that giveaway coming soon!
But if you can’t wait until then the book costs £12 and contains a collection of eight knitting patterns, five crochet patterns, two needle-felting tutorials, an essay, and a recipe. Handily purchase of the print book will also include a download code for a digital PDF version too.
❤️️ PURCHASE WOOL ON THE EXE BOOK 1 ❤️️
Proceeds from Wool on the Exe Book 1 will be split between the charity Knit for Peace and the social enterprise projects of Wool on the Exe.
As always if you hook up the Iska Mitts I hope you’ll tag kcaco.uk and woolontheexe on Instagram or share your projects in my Facebook group as we’d love to see your finished work!
Until next time folks! Happy hooking, keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
