Yarn: Patons Silk Bamboo in color #85310 (a gorgeous grape). The yarn is 70% viscose from bamboo and 30% silk. 102 yds (93m) per skein. I used all but about 1 foot. And there was not a single break/knot in the skein.
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace circ, US size 2 for first 6 inches and the thumbs, then US size 3 to the end.
Pattern: Improvised k1p1 rib throughout, knit from the finger end up. Worked in the round (yay, Magic Loop!) two at a time.** Each mitt is 40 stitches around. After the first two inches of fabric (approx 14 rounds), I knit in a piece of waste yarn over 8 stitches on each mitt, so I could go back and do an afterthought thumb. I did this so I could use up as much of the yarn as possible, thereby making the mitts as long as they could be. (After all, the skein only measured 102 yards.)
At about 6 inches, I switched to a size 3 needle, to allow the mitts to fit the forearm without having to add stitches. When I had only about 3 or so yards left, I bound off the mitts. I did not snip the tail, instead I wove it up the inside of the ribbing to the waste yarn. I used the trailing ends to pick up and knit the thumbs. There are only 4 rounds in each thumb. After I bound off the thumb stitches, I wove in the now-short tail on the inside, and did the same to the beginning tail of yarn at the finger edge.
The final length of the mitts: 10 inches.
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** Yes, this meant working from both ends of the skein at the same time, which (because the yarn comes wound around a cardboard tube) requires balling it into a center-pull skein. One mitt is knit with the center-pull end of the yarn, the other with the outside end. It usually works great, but with such a slippery yarn, I quickly had a mess of tangle to unknot. Luckily for me (and Tira), I am a great unknotter (well, it should be a word). With some patience, I was able to work out the tangles and use all of the yarn without cutting it or throwing it across the room even once!
(finished 2/15/2012)
Yay! Can’t wait to see them!