Chipman’s Check is a bit of feminine deception. At first glance it appears to be a check—little bands of dark and light interwoven diagonally—and maybe tricky to knit.
Look more closely. It’s two rows of three light/three dark alternated with two rows of one light/one dark (otherwise known as Salt and Pepper). No little squares on the diagonal. In fact, no diagonals at all.
Chipman’s Check was sent to Janetta Dexter by an acquaintance in New Brunswick, where Chipman has long been a common family name. The roots of this pattern seem to be British, and even today similar checks are knitted into mittens and gloves in England (McGregor, 1983) and Scotland, but to our knowledge, they lack the clever trompe l’oeil of this pattern.
Janetta provided a mitten pattern in Chipman’s Check in Flying Geese & Partridge Feet. Here is a wrister instead. It is a fun pattern to knit, mainly because it looks like something it isn’t.
Chipman’s Check Wristers with 2-color Maine cast-on on cuffs
Yarn Any DK or medium weight wool yarn will do, if it knits to the correct tension. We used McAusland’s 2-ply Medium for these pairs in Child’s 4–6 and Woman’s Large, but also recommend Rauma Hifa or Rauma 3-ply Strikkegarn, or Halcyon Yarns Victorian.
The cuffs—the emphasis of these wristers—are a half-inch longer than the usual ⅓ hand length and so absorb a larger percentage of the yarn. To make one pair you will need:
MC (with solid color cuff)
| (oz) | 1½ | 1¾ | 2 | 2¼ | 2¼ | 2½ | 2½ | 2¾ |
| (g) | 42 | 50 | 58 | 64.5 | 64.5 | 71.5 | 71.5 | 78.5 |
CC
| (oz) | ½ | ⅔ | ¾ | ⅞ | ⅞ | ⅞ | ⅞ | ⅞ |
| (g) | 14 | 19 | 21.5 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
Equipment 1 set Size 3 (3.25mm, Can. Size 11) double-pointed needles, or size you need to knit in pattern at correct tension • 1 set Size 1 (2.25mm, Can. Size 13) double-pointed needles for ribbed cuff • 6" (15cm) contrasting waste yarn • Blunt-tipped yarn needle
Tension 7½ sts = 1" (2.5cm)
ABBREVIATIONS beg: beginning • CC: contrast color • dec(s): decrease(s) • inc(s): increase(s) • k: knit • k2tog: knit 2 together • MI: make I stitch • MIL: make I stitch left • MIR: make I stitch right • MC: main color • p: purl • rep: repeat • rnd(s): round(s) • SSK2tog: slip, slip, knit 2 sts together • st(s): stitch(es) • twisted MI: twisted make I cast-on
Measurements—inches and centimeters
| Child Sizes | Adult Sizes | ||||||||
| 4–6 | 6–8 | WS | WM | WL | MM | XL | |||
| Hand length | 5½ | 6½ | 6½ | 7 | 7½ | 7 | 7½ | 8½ | |
| 14 | 16.5 | 16.5 | 17.75 | 19 | 17.75 | 19 | 21.5 | ||
| Hand circumference, incl. tip of thumb | 7 | 8 | 7½ | 9 | 9 | 9½ | 9½ | 10 | |
| 17.75 | 20.25 | 19 | 22.75 | 22.75 | 24 | 24 | 25.5 | ||
| Length of wrister hand | 3¼ | 3¼ | 3¾ | 4 | 4¼ | 4 | 4¼ | 5 | |
| 8.25 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 10.25 | 10.75 | 10.25 | 10.75 | 12.75 | ||
| Wrister width | 3½ | 4 | 3¾ | 4½ | 4¾ | 4¾ | 5 | ||
| 9 | 10.25 | 9.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 12 | 12 | 12.75 | ||
Chipman’s Check is a 6-st rep and wraps seamlessly around the mitten. Incs are worked in the rnds with 1 MC, 1 CC by adding 6 sts close together in 2 rnds to insert an entire 6-st element at once without an obvious break in the pattern.
I was confused when 2 sts of the same color came together at the end/beg of Lines 1 and 2 of the chart. This never happens in real Salt and Pepper, which is worked on an uneven number of stitches. Chipman’s Check must have an even number of stitches because the overall pattern is a 6-st rep. Don’t try to make Salt and Pepper work there, or your checked pattern won’t come out even.
Because the pattern wraps around the hand, both wristers are the same and gain right- and left-handedness in use.
Other 6-st patterns can be substituted on these wristers, but use the thumb gore incs for that pattern.
The cuff is worked in MC and k2, p1 ribbing, with a narrow edging of CC. This edging is the sort of touch that identifies the work of individual knitters, who often tag their work with distinctive striping. One knitter I interviewed briefly was carrying on her grandmother’s trademark of knitting a half-inch (1cm) of the mitten’s color pattern in the middle of the cuff.
Here’s how to make this simple edging. Instead of measuring a long tail of the main color for the cast-on, use a slipknot to tie both colors around one needle, about 6" (15cm) from the end of both yarns. Make the slipknot so that it can be released from the 6" (15cm) end. Cast on using the Maine method (p. 13), but hold CC in the left hand and MC in the right hand. At the end of the rnd, break CC, leaving a 6" (15cm) tail and release the knot.
Later, either work all 3 ends into the back of the fabric or use them to crochet a little button loop on one wrister and attach a toggle on the other. OR, sew the edge together at the joint between rnds and braid the tails together so the mittens can be tied in a pair. Scandinavian and Middle Eastern mittens often have such ties.
This is how the 2-color Maine east-on will look.
Chipman’s Check Mittens. To make these, use the wristers pattern, but continue up the hand following hand length (only) measurements for Sawtooth Mittens on p. 100. Decreases will be in Lines 1 and 2 of the chart—four in Line 1, two in Line 2, directly above the first decrease.