Mitten War: Me vs. the Double Pointed Needles

I saw the most beautiful mittens at a little boutique here in town, but for $27 I couldn't swallow the price for the nominal amount of yarn. I needed to learn how to make them. So I got a couple of books from the library with mitten patterns. I'm already bad with patterns...but come on! You could could write an entire book just on how to make a mitten...with lots of helpful pictures and hints. But no, the beginners books had one pattern each, both were 2 pages. (No how-two pics included) My first attempt I didn't use a pattern, I just played around. Luke has claimed this one as his own and loves the additional hole that he can stick his finger through.



On my second attempt I wrote my own pattern based on what I learned from my first attempt and then I combined the two patterns into something I thought was more reasonable. I added a ruffle on the bottom (because the ones I loved had a simple ruffle), and ribbed the wrist section. These came out more reasonably. But wow...this is not a simple project. At one point I had all 5 DPNs in use. Though, I have to say I prefer them to a circular needles. They can be a little tricky to maneuver around, but I hate using stitch markers, so instead I can place the DPNs in such a way that they are the stitch markers.



I am not to the level to make the ones from the store yet, but in a few more tries I think I will. This week I will finish the other mitten and then I'm moving onto pillow covers. Our new couch came with the most hideous pillows (truly unless you buy your sofa at Ethan Allen or Pottery Barn they're going to be ugly). So I'm going to cover a few with knitted pillow cases in various shades of teal and turquoise, and the rest I will cover in unbleached canvas with appliqued letters that will spell out different words. I can't wait...with company coming for Christmas I want to get cracking on the finishing touches of decor...you know like making a bed for Luke...and me...and unpacking all the boxes...and making pillow case covers. 3 weeks...NO PROBLEM!!

On a strange sidenote...when I made the ugly mitten I kept thinking to myself that the thumb portion reminded me of a dragon from some movie...I kept thinking through all the movies with strange creatures...I finally put my finger on it...Willow. The strange bloated thumb reminds me of the dragon from Willow. Am I crazy or do you see it? (granted I can see it in 3D, it might not look so much the same in 2D)