Fingerless Mitts

Remember my intentions to knock out those fingerless mitts for Chris pretty quickly?  Well, that crazy thumb part turned out to be a little bit scarier than I originally thought.  I stared and stared at the waste yarn I knit into the thumb area to be removed later and magically knit into a thumb hole.  But the more I stared, the more confused I became.  I tried to convince Chris that tucking his thumbs into the mitts would actually be much warmer than having a silly thumb hole, but he didn't buy it.  I thought it was a pretty good argument. 

Finally, after much staring and much contemplation, I finally just went for it and tried to follow the directions exactly as written (this is always the answer when I get confused in my knitting - I seem to make the instructions much harder than they actually are).  I inserted my needles into the live stitches from the inside of the mitt, but there were too many stitches on each needle.  I knew I had to pick up three stitches on each side, so I figured it really didn't matter because I would just count them as already picked up (in other words, I said, "screw it, they'll turn out fine").  However, when I carefully moved my needles to the outside of the mitt, there were magically six stitches on top and five stitches on bottom, exactly as the instructions said there would be.  Whether I counted wrong in the beginning or dropped one on the move from inside to outside, I'll never know.  Honestly, I don't care because it turned out right, and mitt #1 looks great!  (It's actually a bit large on me, but you get the idea.)

I hope to finish the thumb on mitt #2 tonight, unless Chris suddenly has a change of heart and decides that tucking that thumb in will be warmer after all...