Skipped the cuff and used a provisional cast on to start immediately on the colorwork.

Did not follow instructions for hand decreases. Instead, started mirrored decreases every other row starting on row 58. Continued plain in MC rather than restarting chart on row 64. Rows 68, 69 & 70 all decrease rows. 12 sts left on each of 2 needles; used kitchener stitch to close.

Read that thumbs tended to be too long, so I knit the thumbs until row 43 (plain row of chart) thendid the 3 rows of decreases as called for in the pattern.

After knitting both mittens, I picked up the sts from the provisional cast on and worked a Lativian braid. I My first time trying it--I attempted to mirror them between the two mittens). Then knit 1 row stockinette before switching to 20 rows of 2x2 rib. BO using stretchy k2tog BO used for toe-up socks.

Gauge was 32 sts and 35 rows = 4” before blocking. After blocking it was approx. 30 sts =4”.

Fun, but I found the way the pattern was written/presented kind of annoying. I downloaded Knit Companion for the iPad and used it for this--probably could not have accomplished this without it, and i will probably never go back to paper charts again, it was great.

These look more like blueberries than blackberries to me…