The Lone Mitten

A few people had asked for pictures of my poor, lone Estonian mitten, so here they are.




Here are my lovely fingers showing off some cuff detail:




And here is a detail showing the waste yarn where the thumb should be:


I'm having the urge to finish these babies, so I plan to pick them up again in the next few days after I get my socks off the needles.

Believe it or not, I went from making scarves to doing this little mitten. Had I known then what I know now about knitting and skillsets and what a stupid idea that was, I definitely wouldn't have attempted it! But I fell in love with it and just learned each little thing one step at a time. In a way, it was like a sampler for all the skills I'd need to do socks and sweaters, all in one little package.

Things I learned from Marko's Mitten:

1. Knitting in the round.

2. Using DPNs.

3. Knitting with both hands at the same time.

4. Faire Isle.

5. An intro to lace (small lace bit on the cuff).

6. Those fancy braids unique to Estonian Mittens.

7. Increasing and decreasing.


Whew!

See what I mean? What was I thinking?!

In any case, I LOVED doing this mitten and the only reason I didn't finish it was because I got all excited about the possibilities of doing a sweater and other assorted fare. Plus, I was still finishing up Christmas gifts and I needed more mindless stuff for the train to commute into the city. But now, I'm definitely feeling the urge again and hope to finish these soon so I can start another pair in the book for my Grandpa.