This tends to be a stressful time of the year.  The potential of holidays aside, I think the clamour of getting things ready for winter is enough to make most of us just want to curl up and stay home.  Seeing as this has been my experience, I decided to sit down and make an adorable pair of mittens.

This idea was sparked when I was snooping around Pinterest and I found this link to a beautiful pair of mittens.  

I scaled and changed the the design of the pattern to better suit my wishes and to complement the bulky yarn I had spun.

With 40 stitches all the way around I made sure that the mittens would be blissfully bulky, and I would have plenty of room to create the pattern.  The contrasting colour didn't show up terribly well at first, but I soon found out that sticking with it was the right call.

The more of the pattern I did, the more obvious the design became.

Before I knew it, I was working on the thumb.  

To do the thumb I used the same yarn as I did for the cuff.  I had 6 stitches isolated on two sides to make the pattern I was working on uninterrupted on one needle, and still make it easy to knit in the round.  Taking those 6 stitches on one side I started knitting with the lighter grey and then casted on 9 more stitches on two new needles.  From there I just knit in the round to create a nice and cozy home for my thumb.

I made sure that the stitches I had cast on were in towards the center (where the hole for my hand is) so that when I picked up the stitches on the bottom, I could continue knitting up for the main body of the mitten.

It was all much of the same after that -- though that doesn't mean I didn't mess up on my Fairisle stitches and have to go back a handful of times.  

Now for the pointed ends!

For 5 rows I decreased stitches by 1 on both sides of the mitten taking from alternating sides so that the front and back would continue to have even stitches.  Then for the remaining rows I decreased in the same spots by 2 on both sides.  I did this by taking the 2 stitches that marked the perfect halfway point for the front and back to be even, and took in the closest stitch.

This created delightfully pointed mittens.

To tie it all together, I ran in this jumble of ends.

And made something far more pleasant for my fingers to slip by.

Here are my happy and cozy mittens.

I hope as December starts rolling into the frantic season that you keep warm, keep cozy, and keep close to those you love.

Stay tuned.