09-04-2021

Decided I was done testing, and cast on for real this morning.

I am narrowing the whole pattern by 4 stitches. Even at my smallest needle size, it was going to come out bigger than I wanted as-is. I’m not crazy about the black outer line on the pattern, so it the edge was an easy place to ditch some columns of the chart.

Used a tubular cast-on, and then did 12 rows of rib. The pattern’s rib length doesn’t match the sample photos at all, so I just picked something that I thought would look nice.

Another thing new for me on this project: I’m double knitting the chart. I’ve never done this before, but it’s going well so far! Since these are mittens, I was concerned that all the floats would get snaggy on fingers going in and out a bunch. They’re going to end up warm as heck, but they’re destined for east coast winters, so I think it’s ok! Plus, the inside will look super awesome.

12-06-2021

What a project! Double knitting it definitely added a new scope of challenges, the biggest being that the inner layer of the decreases needed to start a row earlier than the outer one in order to prevent bunching. It may have been better to start the inner decreases two rows earlier, but I didn’t have it in me to rip out the mitten tip more times than I already had.

I also had to custom redesign the end of the hand in order to lengthen the pattern more. The chart from the pattern worked out to be too short when I had the width gauged correctly, so I added another set of stripes and spaced out the top-side elements.

Overall I’m thrilled with how these turned out. Hopefully they fit the recipient well! ;)

Measurement notes:
• thumb to fingertips 5”
• thumb 2”
• curcumference 7.5”

Total time: 160 hrs, 52 min