hairy hands

pattern: online but i can't seem to find it right now
yarn: reynolds lopi in 501 (blue heather) 2 skeins
needle: us clover 3 dpn for the ribbing, us (i think) 8s for the body
notes:
let me tell you that i had a lot of issues with these mitts. first i didn't realize that i would need 2 skeins of yarn and so i had to order a single skein of this discontinued color online. then came the felting. i started felting it in the washing machine in my building. however it didn't seem to be doing the job and i didn't have any more quarters, so i took the mitts upstairs to see if i could hand felt it the rest of the way. ok- hand felting is not so fun. i got sweaty and tired and hot but at least my arms got a workout. they still seemed really big (the mittens, not my arms) after an hours of rubbing them around so i just took them out to see what the heck was going on. i stuck my hands in the wet mess and lo and behold, the hand actually fit pretty well. the cuff, however, was way too long.

i let them dry for a bit and tried them on again. they seemed to fit, but the heaviness of the felt and the looseness of the cuff made for a mitten that did not wanna stay on. patience is not one of my virtues in kniting so instead of waiting for it to dry completely before deciding what to do, i decided to cut off the offending cuff and try to pick up the (felted) stitches to make a regular ribbed cuff. well picking up stitches in felted fabric isn't so easy but i managed to do it with my size 1 dpns. my fingers were super sore aftewards but i was happy that i might be able to salvage the mittens.

then i actually did let them dry for a couple of days before attempting to add the ribbing. after that it was pretty smooth sailing, as the felted stitches were pretty solid and held the new stitches well. i like them a lot now, even if they made me a bit insane for awhile.

well the weekend is going to start soon and i cannot wait. it's started to rain a bit here but that's just fine with me. tata!