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!

Grandma's Mittens

Last year sometime, I bought some of this really gorgeous green variegated yarn, and I knew that I wanted to make something for my grandmother with it, but I didn't know what since the year before that I had made her a hat and scarf (blogs on those are forthcoming). This year, I finally decided that I was going to try to make some mittens, and mittens out of this green yarn for my grandmother would be perfect.

The color on this (and unfortunately many of my pics as of late) is a little off due to some technical difficulties which I'm working to resolve.

So I looked up a pattern, which you can find it here, and figured it wasn't going to be that hard. Instead of starting with US 4 (3.75mm) double pointed needles like the pattern says, I decided to start with US 3s (3.5mm), and so I added 4 stitches to the pattern. This does mean I'm going to have to do some finagling with the pattern, but I already have an idea of how I'm going to do that, so it should be alright.

Casting on and knitting with those tiny double pointed needles was another story. I messed up my stitches and had to pull all of my work out and re-cast on at least a dozen times, including at least two times when I somehow magically picked up a stitch. It's amazing that I didn't just quit with them long before I got anything substantial knitted. However, I didn't quit, and several days after I started the first mitten, I have the whole 3 inch cuff finished.

I was really worried about the size the whole time I was knitting this, so I kept sticking my hand through my work to make sure it was snug yet comfortable on my wrist. Luckily, I know that my grandma and I have about the same size wrists. Hers might be a little smaller than mine, but my wrist and later my hand is an accurate enough measurement.

The next step is to start on the hand of the mitten and switch to the larger (US 4) needles. I'm excited and a little scared to start on the hand because I am going to have to adjust the pattern a little and if I mess it up, I'm going to be heart broken; but that's not an issue just yet because at this point my double pointed US 4 needles are in another project which I will be unveiling later this week.

Now it's time for me to sit down with some chocolate mint green tea and homemade sourdough toast and work on my knitting. Happy knitting!