Fingerless Madness/mittens

I admit I was a skimmer.  Whenever I had to read books for school I would most likely end up skimming the book to get the gist.  I can assure you it's not really the best method for getting good grades in English.  It's not that I hate reading, it's that I hate reading when I am forced to. There is just some part of my mind that shuts down when I haaaave to do something. Haaaaving too takes all the fun out of it. Well the same thing usually ends up happening when I get a knitting request. A feeling of UGH just comes over me when someone asks for something. Part of my annoyance for knitting requests is that I want to knit stuff for ME, I buy the yarn and put the time into something so that I can enjoy it. Knitting takes a lot of time and most people don't realize the effort and skill it requires. One pair of socks usually take me over a month to complete. Plus there is picking out the project and the yarn, making sure they work together and most of all will be like by the recipient  Since the recipient is usually me there is no random guess work involved and I'm sure that I will like what I'm making. But for other people, who knows if they are going to like it or change their minds and then you end up wasting time and money.

As proof that I am not a fan of making stuff by request, I made a pair of fingerless mittens for my mom because she started them but was confused by DPN's and thumb gussets.  She bought the yarn and picked out the pattern after seeing a sample knit up at Webs, so there was even a good chance that she would like the finished product.. I think I started them 2 years ago, and just gave them to her on Sunday...... I did give her a pair of Fetchings that I had made but were too small for me so it made up for the lateness a bit. And of course I didn't get pictures of either pair before she left with them.

So when my aunt asked me if I could make her a pair of fingerless mitts I was hesitant. But she is pretty awesome and offered to pay for them. I told her to pick a pattern off Ravelry and off I went. The pattern was a simple worsted weight pair with a garter stitch edge. While hanging out at In The Loop Saturday morning I picked up a ball of Cascade Pacific. It's a soft, silky looking merino/acrylic blend. I thought it would be an easy to care for yarn and the color is really nice.  The pattern called for 125 yards and the Pacific has 213 yards. So I thought I would get the first pair done for my aunt and then see what was left for some coffee cup cozies. But after weighing the mitts and then ball and realizing that it only took 18 g / 100 g to finish the mitts I would definitely have enough yarn for a second pair. Since the first pair only took me a day to do, I started the second right away, made them a little longer, added some really pretty buttons and voila! Two pairs of simple mitts in one weekend!