Itchy-and-Scratchy mittens

Recipient: John Hudson MacDonald
Designer: Basic mitten structure from Minerva Yarns (1936), with adaptations and addition of Itchy and Scratchy motifs by me
Pattern: Mittens from Baby Cap and mitts/mittens, mitt pattern; Itchy and Scratchy motifs from Windows icons, downloaded from the Internet
Source: Yarn Lover's Room pattern collection
Completed: March 4, 2005
Colours: Mint green, with the appropriate colours for the Itchy and Scratchy characters
Yarn: Mittens in Zellers 100% acrylic, fingerweight, characters to be embroidered with DMC cotton floss
Completed status: Given June 16, 2005, baby born June 29, 2005
Thank you note:
Thanks so much for the sweater and the Itchy + Scratchy mittens! They look so great now, we can't wait to see them on the baby! Thanks again
Pictures:

2005-Jun-16

Also given at this morning's party. Everyone thinks they're great, and very funny, which is exactly what I was going for. Yay!

2005-Mar-7

Done! I finished them on Friday. Don't they look great?

2005-Mar-4

Embroidery is almost finished on Itchy:

I expect to be finished by the time I go to sleep tonight.

2005-Mar-3

Knitting is complete on mitten #2, and embroidery has begun. You can very clearly see Itchy beginning to take shape:

2005-Mar-2

Got a bit more done on this last night - I'm now ready to start the shaping on the second mitten.

2005-Mar-1

Finished the ribbing - now working on the main body of the mitten. If, indeed, a mitten can be said to have a body. But I think you know what I mean.

2005-Feb-28

Mitten #1 is complete. I think it looks great!

As you can see, I went ahead with Scratchy even though I didn't have a really dark grey. I realised that I'd seen pictures of Scratchy in all kinds of different shades - sometimes he's practically black, sometimes he's pretty light grey. So I didtched the idea of moochign off my dad's floss stash, I went ahead and used the darkest grey in my own collection - DMC #414. It worked well. If you're wondering where I got the Scratchy pattern, it's kind of clever, if I do say so myself (not clever enough to make up for my Carnival Coat blunder, but still). I searched on the Internet for Simpsons icons and found a .zip file loaded with icons - headshots of just about every Simpsons character there's ever been, including Itchy and Scratchy. I then got myself an icon editor so I could view the Itchy and Scratchy icons at a high zoom level, and used that as the pattern. I think it worked really well. I can't wait to finish mitten #2 so I can embroider the Itchy pattern.

2005-Feb-25

The knitting of mitten #1 is complete. I've started doing the duplicate stitch embroidery on it for Scratchy. Scratchy, by the way, is the cat. Itchy is the mouse. I didn't know that before. I had to go to this fan site to figure it out. Ain't the Internet grand? Anyway, the mitten looks like this so far:

I know, it doesn't look like much. It's just the mouth, nose and the outline of the bottom of the face. It will be more recognizable as Scratchy as I keep going. The only snag is that I don't have a dark enough gray in my DMC embroidery floss arsenal collection to do the face. I'll have to go buy some. Oh hell, who am I kidding. I'm probably going to be able to mooch it off my dad. He has a bigger arsenal collection.

2005-Feb-24

Mitten #1 is nearing completion:

I should point out an error in my last blog entry. I referred to the yarn I was using for this project as 'wool' - trust me, wool it ain't. :) It's baby-soft, 100% acrylic. I must stop using 'wool' as a synonym for 'yarn'!

2005-Feb-22

These got taken to work today. However, I spent most of the commute dozing (thanks to DD waking up in the middle of the night, due to a number of factors which DH and I agree were his fault, but I'm not bitter, honest), so only about a half inch more got done on the ribbing of mitten #1.

2005-Feb-21

Started these last night! I'm having to work with fine fingering weight wool and 2.25mm needles in order to have enough stitches in the mittens to embroider the Itchy and Scratchy motifs, so the going is slow. At the moment I'm still doing the ribbing on the cuffs.

2005-Jan-31

I have discovered the way to both move ahead on the designs for my book and do something Simpsons-y for my co-worker. Scratch mittens! They're easy and quick, so I can do them in addition to the cabled sweater. And I can put Simpsons motifs on 'em. In fact, I'm thinking of cheating and doing the motifs in duplicate stitch instead of knitting them in - I can even get the precise colours I want by using DMC embroidery thread instead of yarn. And of course, what is the best Simpsons motif to put on scratch mittens? Itchy and Scratchy, of course! Am I brilliant or am I brilliant. He is going to love them. I anticipate much laughter as they are unwrapped.