The Details:

The Evergreen Lake Mittens are a great introductory pattern to Fair Isle. The pattern is very straight-forward, and you can get through the entire mitten without ever trapping a float. Once you get the hang of the pattern, it’s a pretty quick knit. I completed each mitten in about four hours.

The only way I’ve found to get this pattern is to sign up for Sunne Meyer’s class on Craftsy. The class is excellent for anyone looking to learn how to do stranded colorwork, more commonly known as Fair Isle. It covers three different patterns, walking the learner through increasingly challenging projects.

The only really “gotcha” with this pattern is that the thumb can have a bit of a gap where the gusset joins the body of the mitten. Sunne actually talks through how to handle this in the class, and I just closed them up by weaving ends in a bit more aggressively in that area to eliminate the gap.

I strongly recommend buying the Evergreen Lake Mittens in the recommended yarn (the Baby Alpaca) because the hand on these is phenomenal and they come out looking gorgeous.