Boyfriend's Mittens

When I decided to start my grandma's mittens a few days back, I was thinking that mittens couldn't be that hard, and I could use some practice knitting in the round with those double pointed needles anyway. I still had some green orange and white yarn left from the Irish things I've made for boyfriend, and I estimated that I had enough between the three of them to make him some mittens as well.

These mittens are from the same pattern from which I'm making my grandma's mittens. I'm using the men's size and not making any adjustments which means I started with US 4s for the cuff and I cast on 44 stitches. After I realized adding a few stitches to mittens might not be as easy as adding stitches to other patterns, I swiftly decided to do everything for the hand of boyfriend's mittens first so I can see what they look like following the pattern exactly and where to make adjustments for my grandma's mittens.

Originally I was going to have just the thumbs be white and the left mitten be green and the right mitten be orange. Then I thought I could knit one mitten green and white and one orange and white, but then I tried casting on and knitting with two strands and quickly scrapped that idea, and then I thought why not have the cuffs be white and then depending on how I feel when I get to it the thumbs can be white or not.

The color still isn't super because this is right next to the window by necessity, but the cuff is worked in ribs: k2,p2* all the way around

The only real problem I had with these mittens that I didn't have with my grandma's is the needles. All of my other needles are metal and these are plastic. I've never worked with plastic needles before and I was disconcerted at how much give they had in them. Unfortunately they are my only set of double pointed 4s, so I'm stuck with them for the other cuff of boyfriend's mittens as well as the bodies of grandma's mittens. But good news: I'm done with the first cuff of boyfriend's mittens so as soon as I have time and courage at the same time, I'll start on the hand of the mitten with US 5 double pointed needles.

Happy knitting!

PS. Tomorrow the post won't be up until, at a guess, around noon as I have a job interview at 9:30, but it will be up. Wish me luck!