Mittens for my sister

The first project I turned in for a class in HPKCHC was a pair of spectacularly awesome fingerless mittens. Last winter, I intended to give my sister a pair of fingerless mitts for Christmas. She's at the age where she's starting to care about what she wears, and wants to be unique. Handknit mitts? Perfect!

Except, I kind of fell in love with them by the time I finished. I hated the quality of the yarn (poorly dyed! Super easily tangled! Pain in the neck!), but I adored the finished product. The best part was that they matched a cowl I had already made, both in design, and in color.

So... yeah, those mittens stayed in my closet. What my sister doesn't know won't hurt her, right?

While she was none the wiser, I knew I couldn't pull that again. She had been asking me for quite some time for awesome mitts, and I wanted to make her something she would like. During the summer, I went on a yarn crawl with my best friend, and picked up some Cascade 220 Sport in her color. She's lain claim on this color the past few years (and was very upset when I got a car in almost the right color; apparently, she still intends to steal the car as soon as she's able to drive), so I knew it was something she'd hands down like.

Because I'm a super sneaky sister, I told her that I wanted to make myself mittens, but I couldn't decide on which pair to make. I pulled up a list of potential patterns using the spiffy Ravelry search engine, and let her tell me which ones she liked the best. She wound up picking the pattern Seeta, something I was excited about. I had loved the pattern the first time I had seen it, and was really interested in finding out how the design was made.



After a rough start and a few frogs, I finally was on a roll. I whipped them out in no time! I was so excited about these mitts, and had to be persuaded by a friend to put them away and not steal them... again.

It took a few times of wearing them around the house (you know, to test drive them...) that I noticed I had made a major boo boo, even after  frogging so many times. Can you spot it below?



I had knit an uneven number of ribbed rows at the start of the mitts One had eight row, and the other had ten. Don't ask me how I wound up doing that. Whatever. It won't be noticable under her coat, and I doubt she'll ever even realize.

The only other changes I made in the thumb; I picked up the amount of stitches that the pattern called for, knit for two rows but I decreased during those rows get an even 2x2 ribbing. I then knit five rows of the rib, just to make it more cohesive.

The pattern was excellent- I adore the overall effect. It did take me several tries to understand how to do the  crosses- I suggest reading the projects rated the  most helpful before you tackle this pattern. I turned this in for the September DADA assignment of knitting something to help you pick out a loved in a crowd- the between the pattern and the color, Jennifer will certainly stand out!

I just keep having to repeat "I will NOT steal these mittens" to myself until Christmas...