So, my first mitts were moth eaten and I have an event in January coming up. So, new mitts! The yarn is leftover from my 1930s bathing suit straps, and a new skein is on the way.

My gauge is 11 stitches an inch instead of the 7.5 per inch in the pattern. My first try, I cast on ten extra stitches (84 total) which should’ve made it about an inch smaller than the pattern, but it was huge on me. So I started over with 70 instead of 74 stitches, and it seems to be working very nicely!

To compensate for length--I want these longer than the last--I’m doing the decreases every 7 rows instead of every five rows.

I didn’t like the four stitch seed stitch seam on my first mitts, so I switched it it a one stitch seed stitch. Much neater looking!

27 December--I stopped decreasing when I got to 48 stitches--I didn’t want them any tighter--and then I continued knitting straight for 34 more rows to make them long enough.

I’m also adding increases to the hand. Two on the first row, tenth row, and twentieth row. The 2 1/2 inches of the hand should be 35 rows, so that seems like it’ll work.

28 December--Mitt number one is done! A few changes--the above mentioned “hand increases” are actually wrist increases. The actual space from my wrist to the start of the thumb gussett is about one inch, not the 2 1/2 the pattern said, so those increases actually end where my wrist starts and start 1 1/2 inches down my arm. No big deal though, and because of that the length is longer than I thought and I definitely have good elbow coverage.

Also, where it says to pick up one stitch when picking up the thumb stitches, I picked up three. That space was just too big for one stitch, and I did have holes on my last mitts there. I then decreased the two extra stitches, which actually made for a nice thumb shape.

I’m really happy with the size--they’re nice and tight. My last ones were a little on the loose side.

14 January--Done!

One detail I left out--I knit the garter stitch in the round by changing direction. I think the directions are on Mara Riley’s knitting page? I should look.

I wore the mitts to make 18c ice cream. They’re nice and warm :)

And please note that I had no one to button my shift cuffs in the first picture…