Before I get to the mitt(en)s…. Look what came in the mail so fast I couldn’t believe it:

My Phat Fiber sampler box with all these wonderful goodies in it:

The theme for this month was “Hollywood Glamour” so all the independent dyers/artists were to submit samples with their interpretation of that theme.  I haven’t had a chance to really look at all of it yet but there are yarn samples, and wool roving samples and a pattern and stitch markers and chocolate.  Yes, chocolate.  Mmmmm.

On to the mitt(en)s…. I made my Bird in Hand mittens several years ago:

I thought they were so cute, and pretty, and I loved the little sideways braid thing.  Yes, this is a pair.  I decided to reverse the colors on the second mitten because I though it would be cool and eclectic.  That, and I was trying to conserve yarn and use only one ball of each color.

So, they are not technically new.  However, they were too big.  Way too big.  I thought I could deal with it, but every winter, when I drag them out and try to wear them, they are floppy and fall off.  Want to know why they are too big?  The pattern sizing is done by changing the needle size.  I made these on a size 3 needle which was the 3rd largest of 4 sizes.  The smaller sizes were knit with size 2 or size 1 needles.  With worsted weight yarn!  For non-knitters, usually you use a size 5 or 6 for mittens and worsted weight yarn.  I just couldn’t bring myself to knit with the size 2 or size 1, knowing it was going to be very tight and very hard to do.  So, I reasoned away that the size made with size 3 needles would probably fit just fine.  Ha – we now know how that turned out.

Back to the other day when I’d just had enough of them not fitting right, but wanted to wear them.  I decided to shrink them.  So I soaked them in the sink, soueezed out the excess and put them in the dryer.

Before:

The one on the left had knitted up a little bigger.  Probably because it was my second mitten and I was used to the pattern and therefore a little more relaxed when knitting it.

After:

Don’t ask me why I didn’t put them in the same order as the first picture, which would have been the smart thing to do when doing a comparison.

The formerly left mitt, now the right mitt, was still bigger, so I put that back in the dryer and now they are approximately the same size!  Yay!  A new pair of mittens, sort of.

AND, I knit the Maine Morning Mitts for my mother-in-law:

These match.

Look how funny they are when not worn:

And finished in time to block and dry and give them to her on Christmas.  Now on to the cookie baking. (I’m making these today.)

A heads up for an upcoming blog post: The two days after Christmas are apparently new garage floor painting days, for which I need to help.  I had to watch a video in preparation for this today.  It was riveting.