Getting ready for autumn: Owl mittens

I have to admit I have been bitten by the knitting bug and having finished my lace cowl, I immediately started on the next project.

Source

I love owls and when I saw an owl mitten pattern in the Mollie Makes magazine from last year, I just knew I had to knit them. So, I bought the double pointed needles (at this point I hadn't heard of the magic loop method – and shame on me, but I still haven’t looked up what it means), got 2 skins of wool, switched on you tube – because I had no idea how to knit with double-pointed needles and off I went.

Owl mittens :)

Wool used: Grey Wendy Merino Chunky. I know it is exactly the same colour as in the magazine. I wanted to buy brown wool, so that I can wear the mittens with my beige coat, but when I was in the shop that brown wool and beige coat would look too unicolour. I then had my hands on the pink wool (again), but my boyfriend convinced me to go for the grey one because I can wear them with more clothes.

Needles: double pointed needles, 5 mm
 

Pattern: Mollie Makes Owl Mittens, issue 21 "Seasons Greeting". When you know what you are doing - easy peasy. When you use double pointed needles for the first time ever – slight nightmare. There were so many needles and I had to use a cable needle as well to hold stitches in front or back, puh.

Knitting: I had to start 4 times until I finally got a proper cast on and a few first rounds of knitting that looked alright. That involved loads of swearing, but after watching you tube again and again, it finally worked. One football match and several rows latter, my bf was looking at me: Oh, so you actually did it (surprise in its words) – yep, I am not giving up easily.

I was trying to shape a heart - failed :P

I also found out, that you shouldn't knit when ill with a cold as your concentration might not be the best. I don’t know how often I had to rip apart my knitting – at least I am not scarred anymore. But nonetheless I managed to knit ¾ of the left mitten that night and stopped only when my cast-ons for the thumb slid from my needles. Next day, I finished it off only to find out, that I had forgotten to reverse the pattern instructions which were for the right mitten, buh. My bf laughing: Haha, you are having two right mittens now. So I just left it, until I felt better and ripped 90% of the mitten apart and started anew. If you would like to try the pattern yourself, Mollie Makes (have a look in their comments) has given some instructions on their blog about how the make the left handed mitten.

Bf: Do you really want to pose with flowers??? Me: Sure! Autumn Mood!

I haven't blocked the mittens, because I think they look really nice without :) Also, I didn't add a button for the eyes, because (1) I don't have any in the right size and (2) they look cute without!

How is your knitting going? Have you finished anything and are ready to wear it? Our temperatures are up to 20 C at the moment, so I still have to wait...