Last week was a bit of a rough week. I had a yucky cold. Our landlord forgot to come over to fix the leaking bathroom faucet. The Tigers lost the World Series (wah!). I had to confront someone at work and I hate confrontation (though happily, I felt quite empowered afterwards. Yay me.)

On Saturday I was feeling much better so we drove down to my friend's Halloween party. We had a pretty fun time and G. was even voted best costume for his hilarious Bob Ross getup, which was a big hit.

I thought this week was starting off on the right foot. Then I came home today to find out that the landlord had dismantled the leaky faucet and then just left it there, unusable. I swear he had better come and fix it tomorrow...I assume he needed to get a part or something, but at least make it usable before you just take off for the day! Of course this is the same guy who has his own airplane, waterfront property, etc but still can't scrounge up a few hundred bucks to replace the 1960's-era energy hog refrigerator in our kitchen. [/gripe]

Well, at least I finished up the convertible mittens which were becoming another thorn in my side.G. was so happy to have them that he even showed me his spirit fingers!

As I've mentioned previously, these are based on the Broadstreet Mittens pattern from Knitty, but I made them double-knit rather than single knit. It took me a lot of rip outs and re-do's to get all of the sizing right, due to the fact that I was just winging it when it came to figuring out how to make them in G's size and make them double knit. As a result, they are a bit shoddy. For example the finger lengths are different on the two mittens and the i-cord loop for the buttons are a bit big. But G wore them for work today and they got the stamp of approval, so I guess they'll do!
I was particulary happy with this tubular cast on for double rib, which I followed from Montse Stanley's "Knitter's Handbook." It really blends right in!
Pattern notes:
Double Knit Convertible Mittens, based on the Broadstreet Mittens pattern from Knitty.
Knit with 2 skeins of Gems Quartz merino yarn in color "Finch" (discontinued color)

I am glad that I took copious notes as I altered the pattern, which will make it much easier to knit next time. The pattern is a bit challenging since (a) it is only in one size and (b) it is one of those infamous "make second mitten, reversing all shaping" type of patterns. But I muddled through it and managed to tailor it to my own ideas to boot. See, things are looking up already. Hope your week is looking up too!