My blue mittens are complete. The gifted mittens pattern was very well-written and lots of fun to do, but I did make a few changes. I made the cuff like an inch and a half longer - I like long cuffs! I picked up stitches and did a three-needle bind off to seam up the thumb instead of doing the crochet seam. And next time, I'd just snip the yarn and use a regular mattress stitch (I'm not a fan of an exposed seam). I also reversed the shapings on the top of the mittens. Again just personal preference. I like right-leaning decreases on the right and left-leaning on the left. Just me! And finally, I finished off the top with kitchener stitch like at the end of a sock.

It's a great straight-forward pattern for fiddling with. And boy, did I like knitting the mittens flat! It made them go soooo fast. But (my only real issue with this pattern) a seam inside a bulky-gauged mitten is annoying. I've got to look into another seaming method that doesn't leave a half-stitch seam allowance inside. There's a way, I'm sure! Despite the silly seam, they fit great and are fun to wear.

And they match my blue hat (that I made two years ago) perfectly! This is no surprise as they are both done in Phildar Polaire, a wonderfully warm and soft wool/acrylic blend. I'm glad I decided to rip out the blue scarf I had made with my extra Polaire and turn it into the mittens. I'm thinking it's better that the hat and mittens are in the blend yarn and the new scarf is in the to-die-for cashmerino superchunky. I was briefly tempted to buy more of the cashmerino for the mittens (that is what the pattern calls for) and even more for a matching hat, but then I thought hats and mittens are really like the worker bees of the winter set. They're exposed to all the harsh elements and have to be really warm and resiliant. They're about the cold. A scarf is more about comfort and style. It's about me!

Uh, yeah, the scarf's not done yet. I'm saving it for a knit-while-the-boys-are-playing-quitely moment. Haven't had any of those in a while. But I have been wearing the hat and mittens anyway. I even wore them this morning to the big semi-annual sale at Wild & Wooly in Lexington (at last year's sale I picked up the yarn that became the boys' weasley sweaters). As always I was there when they opened at 7am! Pics of the loot to come tomorrow....