This week, I don’t have (*gasp!*) a finished object I can share with you.  Lucky for us, I have made a lot of things over the years, so I will go back a few months and …. tada! Butterfly mittens.  (By total coincidence, but in a neat way, the designer of this pattern recently gifted all her previous customers with a free copy of her latest fingerless mitt pattern: Dextrous Mitts. Awesome little pattern! Thank you, Eskimimi Knits!)

Pattern: Flutter Butterfly Mittens

Designer: Mimi Hill

Available: $4.50 on ravelry

Yarn: Stroll Tonal in Deep Waters, Stroll in Cocoa

This was a great pattern — well worth the purchase price.  Clear, correct directions and easy-to-read charts, and a design to envy.  I chose “Deep Waters” and “Cocoa” because this was a gift project, and the mittens were meant to match the recipients winter jacket. The tonal blue colors made for gorgeous butterflies, don’t you think?

Alas, I was nearly done with the first mitten when I had to admit the truth: my loose-knitter ways had created a mitten that was going to be … not enormous exactly, but certainly larger than was proper. I could have ripped it out and done everything on a size smaller needle, but instead I decided to finish the tip a bit early (the original pattern has a third row of “big” butterflies, and use the extra space as a “design feature.”  Using fluffy & warm Suri Dream, I improvised a pair of thumb-less mitten liners that fit inside the slightly-too-large shell, filling it out admirably.

Other mods: I changed the cuff a bit, because I like a tubular cast on, two-color ribbing, and a longer cuff than the pattern called for. I also changed the thumb a bit, making it longer and continuing the gusset pattern rather than switching it up. I think I also did the thumb tip decreases a little more quickly than called for — I like a rounded tip.