Guardian Lion Mittens | February, 2022
There is a time for everything…
I was intrigued by the pattern as soon as I saw it on Ravelry several years, but didn’t quite have the courage to knit it (nor spare money to spend on patterns) as it was knitted using laceweight yarns.
Back in January I was in a false state of hope and calmness, having my energy drained from a horrible period over Christmas, and I decided to cast on these mittens in time for the Chinese New Year. Only after purchasing the yarns and the pattern had I discovered that they were made using the double knitting method, which was new to me, and after several attempts in one night I had to admit that I wasn’t emotionally ready for a pair of mittens with a 128 stitch count. I shoved the project away into my yarn box, searching for another project that could either use this gorgeous pattern or these yarns.
Then shortly before the CNY, I made major life decisions and felt a hundred times better. I was motivated by Marceline (@marcelinewu) over on Instagram to keep making in the new year, and also saw Eva (@thecraftedspoon) mentioning trying double knitting. I felt ready to give it another go.
It was truly a labour of love. Even though now I’ve finished the mittens and love them, I still don’t think it is a particularly enjoyable pattern. My wrists hurt, my neck hurt, the nature of colourwork yarns meant they were not pleasant wrapped around my fingers—but luckily I’ve always been a product knitter rather than a process knitter. I kept going by envisioning the finished object and I’m so glad I stuck to it.
*About the name
I decided to call them Guardian Lion Mittens because of the stone lion portrayed. The pattern is named Foo Dog, which confused me because I could easily recognize the stylized animal as a stone lion, a traditional Chinese architectural ornament that stand (in pairs) in front of a building. I looked it up and think the Western translation might be due to the Japanese reference to them as 'lion dogs’ as they transmitted from China to Japan via Korea. The ‘Foo’ might be a transliteration of the word 佛 (Buddha) or 福 (good fortune) in Mandarin and some Chinese dialects. But to me, Guardian Lion seems the most authentic name and carries a good wish.
Pattern
Foo Dog Mittens by Svetlana Gordon
As I’ve written, it is not the easiest of patterns. It feels very typically ‘Russian’ for some reason, probably because the finished object is absolutely beautiful to look at but it is hell complicated to make.
(But if you like this type of patterns, be sure to check out the Ravelry page of this designer—she has so many wonderfully fantastical designs.)
The thumb: For the first mitten, I followed the instruction by placing 11 double stitches onto a spare yarn and casting on 11 new stitches to continue the main body. It was doable, but took me two hours to pick up stitches for the thumb because the cast-on edge (created by backwards loop method) with alternating colours for double knitting wasn’t the neatest for picking up stitches. Thus for the other mitten, I used my usual method by knitting the 11sts with a spare yarn, transferring the stitches back to the left hand needle, and continuing with the pattern. I only knitted 25 rows for the thumb.
I made two small changes to the pattern on the palm side too, just because I think it looks nicer this way.
The mittens are entirely reversible and theoretically you knit the two layers exactly to the same dimensions, which is why the outer layer ends up a little stretched and the inner layer a bit scrunched up (think about making garments—a slip barely needs any ease whilst a coat needs a lot of ease!). This is especially obvious at the decreases at the finger tips, where the colour of the inner layer (white) seeps through the outer layer (red). Now that the yarns have bloomed after blocking, it is not too much of an issue for me. However at some point I might crochet a chain between the two dec stitches on each side using the red yarn to cover up the speckles of white.
(Above: the double knitting technique allows for two sides with reverse colour combos, though the inner side is wrinkly and wouldn't lay flat because the layers relaxed differently during blocking.)
(Above three: see how obvious the laddering is on the inner side. The second picture shows the laddering on one side of the thumb solved with duplicate stitches. Fortunately, the laddering doesn't show too much on the outer side.)
Size
The pattern asked for a standard laceweight (400m/50g) and I picked a slightly heavier yarn. The pattern had only one size (18.5cm) so I was worried that my mittens were going to be very loose. Initially when I held the yarns at my normal tightness, they did create a very loose-fitting cuff. Then I actively tightened the yarns throughout the process (to the point it was difficult to slide the stitches across the needle) and this achieved the size that fits my hands snuggly. Maybe I wouldn’t have to do this if I had 1.75mm needles but the smallest I had was 2.00mm, which was what the pattern asked for.
(For reference, my palm circumference is 17.5cm.)
The mittens are also a fair bit longer than my hands, but the main body is difficult to modify because of the pattern. They are not too long, though, and still practical, so I don’t really have a problem.
Yarn
Isager Spinni
600m/100g (which can be bought in 50g cakes, but I didn’t know that when I bought them—not pleased about that!)
100% pure new wool, made at Skive Garn, Danmark and I’m assuming that it uses Scandinavian, if not Danish, wool. Non-superwash.
Colours: 0 (white) and 32s (red)
I used approx. 26g white and 30g red. The disparity might be due to the fact that the main colour for the ‘outer layer’ when knitting (I knit with the whole project in front of the needles in magic loop) requires a tiny bit more meterage. There are slight differences between the skeins too of course.
At a thicker laceweight, it doesn’t have the smoothness or fineness that I link with lace yarns. In fact, it is similar to Shetland wool and only a tiny bit less rough than Tukuwool fingering. I don’t enjoy knitting with it as much as I love silk or alpaca, but it is very sticky and good for colourwork—I didn’t catch a stitch in a dec and didn’t notice until after blocking, and it didn’t unravel at all. After blocking, it did bloom nicely and created a hearty warm fabric that was (in my opinion) quite a bit softer than Tukuwool.
It is a single ply, woolen-spun yarn, which is prone to skewing when knitted up in stockinette (Donna Eskin has a good article on this), but perhaps the tight-gauged double knitting with colourwork helps the fabric stay balanced as it is not too obvious in my finished and blocked mittens.
I’ve used Isager yarns several times and as always I think it is one of the more environmentally friendly options.
The pattern suggested Malabrigo lace, which sounds interesting as I’ve worked with it before. Whilst it was a stunning non-superwash single-ply merino lace yarn, it was soft like cotton candy and unfortunately pilled easily. I’d be very hesitant to use it for mittens as I would use merino for socks, but I do wonder if the tight gauge makes it more hardwearing.
I know that tigers and lions don’t even live in the same habitat, but I still think this is a nice project to start off the new year. Wish everyone very good fortune in the Year of the Tiger!
