I’ve wanted to make these mittens for 15 years. And for once, I wanted to make them in the same colors as the original.

At first, I was a little ansty about the gauge. According to the math of the original pattern, the gloves are about 7 inches around. I need about 8 1/4 inches. The gauge is calculated based on the stitch pattern for the hand, which calls for slip stitches that compress the work a lot more than normal stranding. The cuff is worked with stranded knitting, and there’s a big, big difference in the gauge.

As I cast on and started to work the cuff, I realized that the cuffs were going to be huge, something like 10 inches around. The pictures suggested that the mittens might have gaunlet-esque cuffs, but I was still nervous, wondering if I’d messed up my swatch or math and if my first attempt would end up as a doll hat after all.

Once I got past the thumb, though, I breathed a big sigh of relief. Sure enough, once I got into the hand pattern the stitches compressed exactly as they had in my swatch, and the mittens fit just right around my hand. Vive le swatch!

I had a moment of anxiety when I started the decreases. I understood that the pattern of the decreases would create a three-stitch symmetrical border on either side of the mitten, with a single black stitch framed by two gold stitches. This worked great for the window pattern rows, but not so great for the solid black rows. Squinting at the picture, I came to the conclusion that that black rows shouldn’t have the gold decrease stitch. I also came to the conclusion that, yes, I would need to strand the black all the way around to make two--two--stitches. But the finished effect was very nice, well worth the effort.

The thumb was rather more challenging than it probably should have been. I cast off the number of stitches called for in the pattern (18, I think), but when I went back to work the thumb I realized very quickly that a 36-stitch thumb was going to cut off my circulation. I recalculated and picked up more stitches, and the thumb fit fine. Unfortunately, I had started the window pattern a half-repeat off, and had to rip back--again--and start over. But the third time was the charm.

I used my various learning experiences from the first mitten to make knitting the second mitten a bit easier. For one thing, I chose to wind the window colors on bobbins and secure the non-working colors to the bottom of the mitten with marker pins, instead of breaking off each color as I finished. It saved me a lot of time weaving in ends, even though I did have to take extra care while carrying the various colors up. I also cast off an extra pattern repeat for the thumb, giving me a nice comfy 48-stitch thumb instead of the 36-stitch tourniquet.

Somewhere during the knitting of the second mitten, I did, however, decide to give the finished pair to my mother. She had admired them very much, but I knew that she felt it would be too much for her to ask me to make her a pair, when it was so obvious that a great deal of work went into them. But I also knew that she would appreciate them and take care of them--and frankly, have the wardrobe to to them justice. So, one Christmas gift down for that year, ten hats to go.