Topless Mitts on Rainbow Mountain

We had a friend stay for the weekend and so it was jampacked with fun filled activities. Including climbing rainbow mountain. Now this was no Everest, but 1 and 1/2 hours of a continuous steep uphill hike...and it gets you puffing. But once we got to the top it was spectacular and wouldn't you just know it...a perfect place for a photo shoot for my new topless mittens! One of the differences between my new home and my old is that they don't usually have any central heating in new zealand. Now coming from michigan...you would just about die without central heating. Here you just light the fire and snuggle in close. But even with JFC's amazing fire skills, I find my hands and nose still going numb with the chill. Now I don't plan on knitting up a nose cap anytime soon but these fingerless/topless mittens are just terrific. I can keep on knitting with my fingers free to do as they please, but my hands toasty warm in their new wooly homes. I got so excited I knit up 2 pairs because it only takes about 1-2 hours per mitt. The pattern is from Weekend Knitting and I used Naturally Harmony 8 ply 100% NZ merino in white & gray and Naturally Merino & Fur 10 ply (NZ possum/merino) in purple and black for one pair. And the other pair was made out of Hummingbird Calliope 8 ply in that lovely red color. The thing I really liked about this pattern is that it is knit in just garter stitch...but from the side instead of top, so it gives it a totally different look and best of all, you pick up stitches on your co edge and then do a 3 needle bind off with the other edge and voila! a tube with no annoying seam rubbing along on your hand. So as the grand finale...here is a picture of me in the official Team Zissou pose on top of Rainbow Mountain wearing my new Topless Mitts.