One down, one to go

Or is that two down, two to go?

My recent mitten misfires drove me to build a tidy pile of mittens laying around the house, a ruler, my knitting notebook, and mitten patterns. Armed with those things, I settled down at the computer to build a mitten database. I wanted to see - in so many words - what worked, what didn't, and how I got there, for mittens.

Armed with that information I decided that I needed to have about 85 stitches for the circumference of any mitten I made with fingering-weight yarn (especially Palette). And so I betook myself to Latvian Mittens, picked out a pattern that didn't have three colors in a row too much, calculated some pattern repeats, revised the cuff pattern (a 24 stitch repeat doesn't go with 85 very well, does it?) and cast on. With size 1 (2.25 mm) needles, for an inner cuff. After 2 inches, I switched to size 0 (2.00 mm), then did another 20 rows or so, turned a lovely picot hem, and brought out the size 1 (2.50 mm) needles.

It fits. Its got good body. The pattern didn't drive me batty. I used enough stitches for the thumb. My tension behaved itself. And I have enough yarn left for a second mitten.

And, there are only 232 people left between me and being a Ravelry Beta Tester!