When Good Knitting Ideas Go to Hell, Part 2

Ah yes, the "partner" mittens. Such a great idea. Such a horror to knit.

The beginning of this semi-tragic story can be found on my blog post for June 6th, 2009. Once again, heartfelt thanks to Gail McGee of Mystic River Yarns, who helped me decode the ridiculous pattern. It was when I realized that this, uh, thing...which was supposed to encase the clasped hands of two people...looked like a hairdryer cosy more than anything else, that I ceased and desisted.

Naturally, I was thoroughly demoralized. But I remembered that Gail had called these "lovers' mittens" and I decided to do an online search using that term. This yielded results--a lovers' mitten designed by Ann Gallentine and posted on her knitting website, Ann's Knitting Page: http://www.gallentine.org/Knitting/index.html (As a side-note, I find it so interesting that rescue came from a lady who lives in Kansas, and whom I'd never meet other than for the serendipity effected by the Internet. Thank you, Ann.)

Ann's pattern was the easiest part of the endeavor. It knitted up quickly and does the job. The women's right-hand mitten and the men's left-hand were harder, once again because the patterns were poorly written. (The women's was from the original partner mittens pattern; the men's was from a generic pattern found in a knitting magazine that shall remain nameless.) Frustration developed from my constant awareness that this project just shouldn't have taken as long as it did, nor should it have required so much ripping out. I put it away repeatedly, because it made me want to scream. (Correction: because it made me scream.)

Then B and F stopped by the other day, and I needed to get final measurements. They tried on the lovers' mitten for me, and it fit! I determined to forge ahead, and the entire project was finished today. Live and learn, I told myself, resolving that I'd never knit this again.

Except H just asked me, ever so sweetly, to make us a lovers' mitten. In green.

Sigh.