Good morning! Here I am, coffee cup in hand, to tell you about what happened last night. I wound one of my skeins of Artyarns Supermerino, and it felt so soft and wonderful between my fingers that I decided to cast on before bed. I knew exactly what I wanted to make: these. I’m not quite sure how I stumbled upon Sheepish One, but she has some beautiful pictures of her knitting (including some very cute Halloween stripey socks.) Her pictures of the mitts she made as a test knit for The Plucky Knitter prompted me to check out the etsy shop, and her yarn is gorgeous — and on my wish list. Anyway, I love the mitts at Sheepish One because they are simple: no lacy pattern or cable to detract from the beauty of the yarn. Turns out, she used these guidelines at knit and tonic. (Can you tell I’ve recently learned how to insert links?)

In real life, the colors are deeper — more reds and purples than hot pink. I cast on 46 stitches on size 5 needles, thinking I wanted these to be dense and cozy, and that if the ball band gauge was 4.5 st to the inch on size 7s, but the yarn felt thinner than the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran I used for Fetching, maybe I could get something like 6 st to the inch on size 5s. Note: I am living on the edge here: no swatching. I know, I’m testing the gods of gauge. I’ve lost at this game once before, with Calorimetry, but mitts are so quick to knit that it seems silly to knit and bind off a full gauge swatch when I can just rip it out if it doesn’t work. Famous last words? We’ll see.