Running the Gauntlet

Most of the blue yarn was left over from the turtles shawl, so I decided to make a pair of fingerless mitts for its owner.  The pattern is Basic Fingerless Mitts, and as you can see by the pattern picture, they are supposed to be mitts.  Once again, I fought gauge and lost.

Part of the problem, I believe, is that the yarn was spun finely for a shawl and really wasn't intended for this purpose.  I tried several different needle sizes, before settling on size 5.  

All I can really say is that this was an adventure.  I knit the right mitt, twice, and wound up taking off several rows just to get them roughly the same size.  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka Yarnharlot, has a brilliant technique for ripping back that involves inserting a dpn in the row to be ripped back to, and I used that to keep from going too far.  

Fortunately, the ribbing helps keep them on.