designed :: Shameless Mitts, originally uploaded by earthchick.

So I designed something, y’all! Actually two somethings!

Last fall, every Sunday night after watching Dexter on Showtime, I kept seeing those promos for the new series Shameless. I became utterly obsessed with a pair of fingerless mitts worn by Emmy Rossum as Fiona Gallagher. I watched and rewatched the promo countless times online (and later did the same thing with a few portions of the first episode on DVR) in order to get a better look at those mitts. I was totally smitten with them.

They were slouchy, grey, cabled, and textured. I loved how the seed stitch wrapped around the outside of the hand.

I loved how they were super-long, so that, though they were fingerless, they could easily cover the fingers if needed.

And I knew the perfect yarn for them: Stonehedge Shepherd’s Wool (a Michigan yarn!) in Pewter, which my lovely local yarn shop (Knit A Round) carries in abundance. I pretty much straight-up copied the ones from the show, as best I could.

But I included options in the pattern, for making them shorter and ending with ribbing instead. I realize that the long, slouchy look is not the usual preference for fingerless mitts. Check out the gorgeous shorter ones that Kirsten and Carrie made. I love them! They both used Shepherd’s Wool, too. Don’t their mitts looks so yummy?

Elinor mentored me through the whole process of designing these, including making the charts for the pattern ( Kirsten helped with that, too – thank you, Kirsten!). There’s no way I could’ve done it without their help.

Elinor suggested that I make the pattern into a set. So I set out to design a hat to match the mitts. Emmy Rossum doesn’t wear anything like this in the show, but don’t you think she should?

It’s also made with Shepherd’s Wool and it has become my go-to hat this season. It has the same offset cable as the mitt, along with those nubby seed stitch panels (love me some seed stitch!). And it’s slouchy without being ridiculous:

I always wear slouchy hats down close to my brow, but this hat looks good in the more common style of wearing it back on the head. I just can’t pull that off, but the lovely Evalyn can:

The cables come together at the back of the slouch for a fun look:

There’s no way I could’ve brought these patterns out of my head and into life without Elinor mentoring me just about every step of the way. Thanks, Elinor, for the encouragement, advice, and support. You rock!

I’m also grateful to the amazing and multi-talented Stacie Dolin for her detailed tech editing! And to the inimitable Heather for test knitting, encouragement, and comic relief.

The patterns are available for sale through Ravelry as a collection or individually. You can purchase the pattern for the mitts here and for the hat here .

This set is near and dear to my heart, and I hope you love it, too! It’s not too late to bang out a hat or a pair of mitts (or both!) for a holiday present for someone special – or for yourself!