Gauge:

• Front: 16 sc = 4”
• Back: 8 sc x 9 rows = 4”
• Pads: 14 sc x 16 rows = 4”

Instead of using super bulky yarn for the back I held two strands of cotton yarn and one strand of Red Heart Super Saver yarn together. I used a K (6.5mm) hook and my gauge was slightly smaller than the pattern’s. So I started with 12 sc instead of 10 and worked 8 rows instead of 6. I worked 5 rows even and decreased down to 6 sc instead of 4.

I made little pads for the back of the mitts because I tried one out and while it worked (I didn’t burn my hands), I could still feel some heat coming through and I was paranoid about the acrylic melting. And I had extra yarn left over and nothing else to do with it.

The pads measure 4.5” wide x 2.5” tall. I started with 16 sc, worked 5 rows even, and decreased 2 stitches every row down to 6 sc for a total of 10 rows. I sewed them onto the mitts with the yarn tails using a running stitch.

I used 2 strands of Premier Cotton Fair held together for the nose and Caron Simply Soft for the embroidery.

I omitted the hanging loop because we keep our potholders in a drawer. And I originally omitted the tail because I was trying really hard to avoid buying a third ball of yarn. I ended up needing the additional yarn anyway, but I already sewed the first mitt together and didn’t have a good way to attach the tail.

I sprayed the front pieces with water and left them in the sun to dry so they would be nice and flat before embroidering and sewing them to the back piece.

The Hobby Lobby yarn is horrible. It splits like crazy and comes un-plied very easily. I tried to use the yarn tails from the ears to sew them to the mitt and after frogging a couple of times the yarn was a tangled, unusable mess. I will never use it again.

Total Cost: $4.41