A couple of years ago, when I was furiously knitting socks as Christmas loomed ever closer, I wish I’d thought about knitting these. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have had any aran weight yarn in my stash, or something stupid like that. But by gum these are QUICK! I cast on the first mitt on Saturday evening and had cast off the second by Sunday lunchtime. I guess over 6,800 finished pairs on Ravelry should be a bit of a clue that these are A Good Project.

There’s not much to say about the pattern that hasn’t been said before. Like many people, I had to break into a second ball of yarn. I got almost to the thumb on the second mitt before I needed the second ball, though. I didn’t do the picot cast off because I couldn’t get it to look nice, so just cast off in the 4 x 1 rib. I also kept crossing the cables the wrong way on the second mitt which was just annoying more than anything else.

The yarn was lovely to knit with. I had planned on making these with alpaca and envisaged the softest mittens ever made, but after I’d cast on and worked the first cable round, I changed my mind. Alpaca doesn’t have the same amount of “give” as wool, and as these are knitted at a tighter than usual tension, it was going to be a bit of a slog. So merino it was, and I’m really pleased with the result. Knitting for someone I have no idea about is always risky, but I have seen the teacher these mitts are for wearing a dark teal scarf, so I figured that she would like the colour. Plus she is young (I know I’m getting old when the teachers are ten years younger than me ) so probably not averse to cute wristwarmers.

I have also finished one secret project in the past week, so my total of finished Christmas knits currently stands at 3. *is smug*