more knitting and autumn colors

Fingerless mittens are fairly easy to knit -- even fair isle (multi colored) ones.  They are just a straight cylinder, with ribbing in the cuffs -- you don't even have to put in a bona fide thumb like I did in these, you can just leave a slit, like a button hole for the thumb.  The straight cylindrical shape makes it easy to use Fair Isle patterns of varying sorts and numbers of rows.  I make copies of black and white pattern charts of Fair Isle rows, pick the the number of rows I want (a 2 row pattern, 5 row pattern, etc) and patterns with the correct number of repeats to fit the stitch number in my piece, and then use markers or colored pencils to try out different color combinations.

I knit these fingerless mittens a few autumns ago.  I was struck by the September/October colors in my yard -- the chartreuse leaves and purple berries of the beauty berry (calicarpa) bushes I have, juxtaposed with the blackened susans (rudbeckia), the deep blue of October skies, the greenish brown loden color of adjacent tree trunks.

Brought out our autumn table cloth and sunflower placemats for our kitchen table finally.  Sometimes the beauty berry leaves will fall off the plant before the berries are all eaten by the birds and squirrels, which is then very striking!

Linking to The House in the Roses Show Off Your Cottage Monday