My Crazy Mitten Story

        

        Until a few weeks ago, I'd only ever knit a headband, and an attempt at a scarf which turned out looking more like a triangle. Knitting was something that interested me, but that I wasn't particularly fond of. However, when this school year started and I had my choice of elective classes, I chose Knitting (Strikking). The first task was to create a sitting mat. It involved using multiple colors and balls of yarn, and they are meant so that we can take them on trips and not have to sit on the cold ground. The yarn is all wool, and provided by the school. I missed the first class due to a trip, and the teacher wasn't there for the second one, but I was told to do 80 masks (the loops on the needle). I guess other people had smaller needles than I did, or they had remembered wrong when telling me, because my finished result was a long rectangular mat better suited for two, or something resembling a baby blanket. I took it on one of our day trips though, and it actually worked perfectly! While a bit larger than others, when folded over it kept my butt nice and cozy :)

        The second task we had in Knitting was mittens. Yeah I know, going from a glorified square to a whole mitten?? With a pattern?? And reverse knitting?? Seemed impossible. I was given the instructions which of course were in Norwegian and made little sense to me, as my knitting vocabulary isn't quite up to par. Luckily, one of my new friends is an expert, and has been making mittens for years! She was so patient with me as I pestered her with questions, and messed up a thousand times. This is the heart pattern I put on the back. 

        Finally, after a week of hard work, my Frankenstein Mitten was complete. The first one I did had such a terrible cuff (it's a very difficult pattern to learn when you're a beginner), and was so enormously large. I was so proud! I figured that this could be my test mitten, that I wouldn't be wearing it, so I decided to make two more. With my new experience, these ones turned out looking quite good! The cuffs had only a few twists, and the thumbs actually fit a normal person's finger. I was so excited about my new pair of mittens, and I couldn't wait to wear them, but first I had to put them in the washing machine so that they would shrink a little and get softer. 

        I put them in for half an hour, and finished my book in the meantime, so I was a little late going back for them. Usually if a washer finishes, the next person waiting just takes out the clothes and puts them in a bin for their owner to find. When I got back to the laundry, a new load had started, but when I looked for my mittens, I only found one. The guy who had switched the laundry had only taken out one of my mittens before putting his in. (I don't know what he was thinking when he pulled out one mitten and thought oh yeah this makes sense). 

        When I finally got my mitten back, it had shrunken so much! It looked so tiny next to the one that had previously been its perfect match. I was frustrated, and the boy felt properly bad, but now I'm able to laugh about it. Ironically, the one that had shrunken was the only right mitten, so I couldn't even pair my new one with my original. I spent the next week making a new mitten, finishing the thumb with barely a meter of yarn left. I'd gotten so good at it, that the newest one was knit very tightly, so now I am the proud owner of four slightly different sized mittens. (It looks more drastic in real life than in photos). I guess I'll just have to keep making more! 

        It's very funny, now that I've made so many--I've really been on the grind, most people haven't even made one yet--other students keep coming to me for advice. I barely know what I'm doing, but I'm now seen as a sort of mitten expert. Here's my plan for the next one!