Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The mismatching matching buddy mittens

So after the hat came the mittens, with little people and an matching hat to match her hat. What is dear to me about these especially is that these mittens are for my daughter, the white yarn I bought, the blue yarn my mother got for us, and the embroidery floss is from my grandmother (my father's mother). The mittens that span four generations! I made the one that slightly resembles M first. And then I asked her who the second one would be.

And there he is, our neighbor and her dear friend, O. She adored these mittens, but 8 months later when we got them out as we started to ready for the weather change, she was very disconcerted that they didn't match. Matching is very important when you are 3. But then I reminded her that they actually DO indeed match, that it was O and M wearing matching hats, and the matching need was met.
I love these mittens, but I should have used a different body yarn, I didn't know enough about yarn, and I think that while I love this yarn, I think it may get scratchy after a while. But where we live, chances are she won't need to wear them long enough to bother her.
The hat, I think, I was lucky it fit her (even as a novice knitter, I didn't knit guage, the pattern was for an adult, I was using a different yarn, etc.). But the mittens were the beginning of my knit-it-too-big-on-purpose m.o.. Maybe I have a phobia that by the time I finish, it will be too small, but I think that really I just felt that if I knit it, I want it worn too big, just right, and a bit snug.
The idea for these came from the memory that I had gloves with faces on each finger when I was a kid that entertained me for hours, I did a search for mittens and finally found these: http://www.aristofashion.com/handknit/freepatterns.htm but I pretty much played it as I went along, and made the hats to match hers. I was going to add the cat ears, but she just wanted the mittens already.

Note: We went to Chicago in Feb of 09 and M would announce to me when holding my hand: "You're holding your Molly!" Or "You're holding Oscar!" I love how much she loves these.

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