Finished – just in time for this winter!

These mittens took forever to make. I finished the right-hand one in February and made a start in the left-hand one. The trouble was that the instructions weren’t very detailed on the left thumb, which is, in theory, a mirror image of the right thumb. I got mighty confused.

After having been inspired by my sock class, I picked up the mitten again and started knitting. I couldn’t imagine why I’d stopped because it actually seemed pretty straightforward. After knitting a few rounds, I counted the stitches. That’s when I realised why I’d struggled before.

After much unknitting, reknitting, reunknitting and rereknitting, I finally got somewhere with it, and got to the cast-off. I couldn’t remember how to cast off, but for some reason known o my to my brain, I decided not to look on the internet for one of these kindly American ladies (knitting tutorial videos don’t all feature American ladies, but most of them seem to). Instead, I made it up. I knew it was wrong when I finished. When it came to casting off the thumb, which is knitted with a separate piece of yarn once the gusset is done, I did look it up, and I did it right, if not well. The top edge of the bit where I made it up looks bad.

But it’s fine. The bad casting-off, together with all the other mistakes I made, like doing a knit stitch instead of a purl stitch (or vice versa), make it unique and special and mine.