Inspired Knitting

I love having knitting buddies! Especially ones who are so close that I get to see all their stuff (usually) first, before it hits their blog!

The very cool thing is that when I see something in person, I can get a better sense of what the pattern is like and if I'd like to knit the same thing, too...AND I get inspired by having knitted FO's before my very eyes!

And so was the case when I saw Nartian's Bella Mittens! They were so cute and I realized that right around the very same time I first saw them, I had just (again) promised to knit my niece a pair! Mind you, this child is patient. She has asked for mittens and been waiting on them for a good two years, I'd say!

I don't know why it was taking me so long to do. Maybe the thought or prospect of having to find the 'right' mitten pattern, sized for a child, not a tot? Maybe the prospect of having to re-size a pattern written for a tot and not quite being in the mood to do it?

Well, when I saw the Bella's Mittens, knit in bulky, I was ecstatic! I could knit this pattern in worsted and be done in a snap! And not have to resize (thinking this as I kept my fingers crossed!)

In the long-run, I started it in Cherry Tree Hill Sockitome "Spanish Moss" colorway, doubled. I finished one, but had to put it aside to work on last minute hats for a school trip. Now that I've finished one hat, I am reconsidering my deadline of (tomorrow) and thinking perhaps they will be an "in a week more" knit, rather than "by tomorrow"...!

So here is one completed mitt; I left off the first two or so repeats of the horseshoe cable to make for shorter mittens, starting at "Row 16", casting on 41 instead of 43 stitches.