Legacy Project: Mittens

With the recipient known, one nearly-finished mitten, all the remaining yarn, and access to the pattern my sister used, I thought finishing these mittens was going to be a piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong! I am enjoying the challenge of finishing these projects; this one just took longer than I expected.

For one thing, her work didn't match the chart, or number of stitches, in the pattern. And I couldn't just "read" the knitting, because she randomly slipped a stitch or knit two stitches together. I worked up a chart that semi-matched what she'd done. And since neither thumb had been done, I did what I wanted there.

It also turns out that my sister did color work in a way I don't and never have. There's probably a name for it, but I don't know what it's called: she twisted the two colors after every.single.stitch. I wound up adopting her method for the back of the mitten, but not the palm.

It took many, many attempts to match my sister's gauge. By now I have a pretty good idea what the difference between her gauge and mine is, but that color work method threw everything off.

They're not an exact match, but close enough, and the recipient will always know which one my sister made, which is no bad thing.