Ravellenic Mittens

I have been busy knitting away to complete my goal of finishing up the beautiful Blomst Mittens before the end of the Olympic Games. I made a few mistakes on the first mitten... a few I left and a few I went back to correct. This is my first time following a stranded colorwork pattern... so it has been a learning experience.

I followed the modifications of a few of the other knitters on Ravelry... mainly leaving out one set of leaves to make them a tad shorter.... to fit my short fingers better. I accidentally made them even shorter by leaving out a couple of rows on the first set of petals! oops. Then I had to shorten the last set of petals too so they wouldn't look weird.  I am trying to duplicate this error on the second mitten!

One of the most challenging parts of stranded colorwork on double pointed needles is that I have a tendency to either pull the unused strand of yarn too tight or not tight enough between needles.  Then the fabric bumps up or leaves a hole.  Ugh.

Right when I was about to bind off the first, I realized that I had not read the pattern correctly for the decreases and the tip of my mitten looked MESSY (I should have taken a picture!).  Too messy for me to live with (I live with mistakes a lot... it is a part of life... and a part of completing projects in a timely manner... it also adds character!). So since I didn't want to live with this mistake, I ripped back the first mitten to before the start of the decreases and reknit it. It looks much better now.

I am much happier with my color choices now, but I still feel the gold is too dark.  I just placed a new WEBS order for a few more colors to mix and match with future mittens! Yay! New Yarn!

Only 2/3rds left to knit on mitten #2! I am well on my way to accomplishing my Ravellenic Goal this year. Are you knitting anything for the Ravellenic Games?

Don't forget about the Mama's Favorite Longies Giveaway - Those are next on the needles :)