It’s gotten cold in these parts, and I need a pair of mittens.  I probably should have knocked out some utilitarian snug plain old mittens, but no, I thought I needed to do something a little fancier.

I chose a pattern from ravelry called “Emma’s Mittens”.  I had some worsted weight yarn from Tahki Stacy Charles called Sedona.  It’s a wool/silk blend.  Really nice to knit with.

So I finished a mitten.  It was lots of fun.  Cables and bobbles both!  Here’s the top.  It could use some blocking so that the bobbles pop up better.

The palm of the mitten was fun too.  It was a seed stitch pattern.  The thumb was an afterthought thumb – also seed stitch.

There’s a problem though.  This mitten is enormous – and the reason I haven’t blocked.  I don’t need it huger!  My hand flops all around inside it.  David tried it on and it’s kinda big on him too. (He referred to this as more of a “gauntlet”.)  It’s very disappointing.  It’s my own darn fault of course.  I should have either done a swatch (it would never have crossed my mind to swatch a mitten – although it probably should have).

It occurred me that I could see if it would felt up a little but I’m afraid that would mess up the cables and bobbles.  The silk in the yarn probably won’t lend to good felting either.

Ugh.  I haven’t frogged it yet, but I am not knitting the second one either.

Lesson learned.  Pay attention. Swatch.  Or take into account that I am a loose knitter and adjust accordingly.  Also my yarn selection was probably not ideal either.

I may go more utilitarian on my next attempt.  Although I am thinking about doing some gloves and putting in some of that conductive yarn at pointer and thumb finger tips.