The Final Piece

This week I cleaned out my yarn bins and had the pleasant surprise of discovering several almost completed projects.  One of which was a pair of mittens for a customer. All that was left was one thumb on one of the mittens.  Unfortunately, I free-handed the thumb on the first mitten because the pattern had the thumb 3 times larger than it needed to be.  So, retracing my stitches was a little difficult and if the thumbs aren't the same, they're close enough that I don't think anyone will notice the difference.

I found the pattern on my trusty ravelry site and although I don't like the thumb I love how she shapes the rest of the mitten.  Here's the pattern: http://dandylionspatterns.blogspot.com/2007/06/janas-mitts.html.  Although the pattern calls for a 4.5mm hook I used a 5mm (H/8) and my favourite cotton yarn from JoAnn's.  It turned out a tad on the large side but they work quite nicely for long hands.  For the thumbs, I did a triple decrease in the corners and 1 sc in each stitch otherwise around, then 1 sc around for 5 rounds.  Then decreases all the way around twice and tuck in the tails.  The only thing I don't really like about doing mittens (and booties for that matter) is once you finish one you still have one more to go!  It takes more time and you see results slower.  But they're quite useful in the end.  And stylish too!

The mittens are the final piece in a set that already included a hat and scarf.  I sold the hat and scarf months ago and as an afterthought she wanted a pair of mittens to match.  She wants them for the fall to give to her daughter.  Although the mittens are rather plain the rest of the set is quite beautiful.  If her daughter hadn't loved it I'd have taken it back willingly :)