Grandma's and Sister's Finished Mittens

I've never made mittens before, but this year I made 3 pairs which just seemed like a million, especially as I started in on the fourth fifth and sixth mittens. But I finally finished all of them, and I could not be more glad because it means I can be done with mittens for a while.

I finished my grandma's mittens a few days ago, and they've been sitting around waiting for me to post about them. I think they turned out great. They're the same size, and it's a good snug, but not tight, fit. 

They're such a pretty green, I know my grandma will love them. Green is her favorite color. And it will be the third knitted project I give to her that I made with her needles that she gave to me.

Then there are my sister's mittens. When I asked her what she wanted after it became apparent that the scarf was not going to work out, I was hoping she'd want gloves or fingerless mittens or a headband or a cowl or something else that I hadn't made. No. She wanted mittens.

Well, they're finally finished, and while the yarn looks great and the fit it great, there is one little problem: because I foolishly counted rounds and didn't measure or even compare sizes while I was making the mittens, the second mitten is a little longer than the first.

Maybe you can't really tell, and my sister did want it to be a little longer when I had her try on the first mitten, but I'll always know that they aren't quite right.

Still, all told, I think my mitten knitting was an overall success with my grandma's being the best. The others are fine, but both other pairs do contain some live and learn experiences.

 Happy knitting!

Progress on Grandma's Mittens

I'm pleased to say I've made lots of progress on my Grandma's mittens. The double pointed needles I was waiting for were in the pair of Irish flag mittens when I wrote the last blog, but I finally got them out and got into this mitten in a big way. I also learned in these mittens, as compared to boyfriend's mittens, that the plastic needles in the hand and as a stitch holder for the thumb are significantly superior in that they can bend a little so the rounds above the stitches on the stitch holder can be knitted closer together rather than having this weird slight gap like boyfriend's do.

This is the same pattern I used for boyfriend's mittens, except first of all I made the women's size, and second I decided to use US 3 and 4 needles rather than US 4 and 5 like the pattern says, so I added four stitches to it to compensate. Since I added four stitches to the pattern, I was a little nervous at how the mitten would work out, especially once I got the the hand and decreasing. I added two stitches to each side of the thumb, and it seems to have worked out perfectly. The mitten is a little snug, but in a good, cozy way.

I was a little nervous to do the thumb, but it came together perfectly. It's a good size and fit and looks good. Altering the decrease wasn't really bad. It took me a little bit to figure out what to do, but I managed it, and I don't think you can tell that it's a little weird.

All in all I'm very pleased with how my grandmother's first mitten turned out. There is one more difference between this mitten and boyfriend's mitten that you may notice. When I made boyfriend's mitten, I missed the part of the pattern that said knit until the piece measures x inches long, and then put the stitches for the thumb on the thumb holder, so imagine my surprise when I went back to the pattern to reference for my grandma's mittens and i saw that and realized I hand't done it on his mittens! So I did it here and they fit great and look great, but I don't think boyfriend's mittens fit poorly in any way. They just look a little silly. And of course I caught it before I finished his first mitten, but not by much, and it fit okay, so I decided not to rip out the whole thing. But now I know.

The variegated yarn looks great, the mittens fit great, and I'm getting better at mittens. This year's knitting is going very well!

Happy knitting!