Christmas Knitted Up

                                

          This year I'm knitting everyone a gift. I started with my son's girlfriend Emily's gift- Maize Mittens figuring it would be the easiest.

                                                                         Emily enjoying a skate with her Maize Mittens.

Maize Mitts- Well it is my first mitten experience but it took me 2 weeks and so many rip outs I lost count! But it was worth it. The pattern is wonderful and is actually meant for a beginner in mittens. A lot of it is tutorials on how to do it. 

                                                      

                                                             

So in the end I was pleased  because when faced with my son's Fingerless Gloves with a Mitten Cap- I needed the experience- I kinda, sorted knew  what I was doing. His pattern for Urban Necessity Gloves: Subway Knitter- urban necessity pdf

A Ravelry member's version of The Urban Necessity Gloves:

Pictures on my son's Urban Necessity Fingerless Gloves with a Mitten Cover will come when I finish. Right now I'm figuring out a hole for the capped thumbs- my own addition.

OK- so I'm back. My son wanted these holes in the thumbs and I think I've got it figured out, but by the time I get to the other glove I might forget. So here are my adjustments to add an inside hole to the thumb:

After attaching the yarn to the open unfinished thumb hole, I did about two rows, connecting the 2 open ends with a cross-over of 2 stitches. I then turned my knitting around (I'm on 4 double pt. needles) and purled backwards the way I came- binding off a little loosely- 5 stitches (a hole!). Then I fudged things....I continued purling "backwards" (adding a complete row) and bringing my yarn back to the beginning. I then knit cast on 5 stitches onto my needle and started knitting these cast-on stitches in the correct direction. Some kinda fudged moves - there will be a dangling bottom half to the hole- I picked it up  by knitting the end stitch with the dangling end and the other end I did another crossover of stitches. So there are some gaps which I'll need to hand fix with yarn later. I think this will help me figure out the other glove- but I'm probably not clear enough for someone else. I'm sure there's a better way- but this will have to do.

Finished Mitt-Gloves: Perfect Mitt-Gloves (Ravelry site for more details & pattern).