The first deep frosts of winter may not always be welcome, but they do bring about a few enjoyable treats. For South-Western Ontario, those frosts lead to one of the rarest harvests in the world, as naturally frozen-on-the-vine grapes are swiftly cut, pressed, and turned into sweet, delicious Icewine. For knitters, cold weather brings about that sweet time of year when we can show off our knitted winterwear!
With these thoughts in mind, then, may I introduce the Icewine Mittens?
Icewine mittens — front.
Icewine mittens — palm side.
The grape cluster motif.
The palm mini-grapes (with a tip of the hat to the Bird In Hand mittens, of course!)
The “peasant” thumb and palm pattern.
The original pair has been gifted away, but a second pair is in the works — I have to have a pair for myself! I’m trying to get the pattern ironed out, and hope to have it available soon. To that end, I would love to have a couple of pattern-testers. Anybody up for it? Just send me an email (see sidebar for gmail address).
Aemmeleia's Ephemera 
That’s really neat! I’d totally offer to test knit, you know, if I had yarn to use (no stash to speak of)/colourwork experience (working on that)/test-knit abilities. Still, let’s just say you’ve added quite remarkably to my desire to make pretty mittens in all sorts of colors and designs.
Wow – they are amazing!
What great mittens! I love the grapes, the leaf motif, and the colors so much.
I thought that ice wine was such a cool thing when in Ontario. Only had a sip, but it was enough to make we want to go back and try it once kiddo comes along…
That’s a great pattern. Nice work!
Absolutely gorgeous! Great job! I would so volunteer to be a test knitter but being that it may take me a month or two to finish the pair… well, I’ll leave the test knitting to the quicker knitters. :)
But I will definitely be making those once the pattern is available!
Oh my, they are BEAUTIFUL! I’d love to help you test knit but like the commenter above, it would probably take me a month or two to finish them!
These are fabulous! What great colours.
I’d love to test knit – I’ll email too.
…
so that’s what makes it ice wine…
They are gorgeous! I love the color combo..
Those mittens are gorgeous! I love the grapevine motif—really lovely! I tried ice wine (eiswein) for the first time while living in Germany—very yummy.
As for test-knitting….in my dreams! I’m already a lefty knitting half right-handed. The thought of maneuvering two colors at once makes me feel a little….dyslexic! I so envy your colorwork abilities!
Wow.
All other knitting could be put aside to try that.
Did you get enough test knitters?
Again – wow, and as I live in wine country and have worked for wineries, beautiful.