Bought some undyed alpaca blend yarn from the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair a couple of days ago and can’t wait to knit it up!

Using the tan as the background, with the pretzel motif in dark brown. Motif is 10 sts wide x 12 sts tall.

Reminder to self: yarn dominance - always make sure the brown foreground yarn is coming from underneath the tan background yarn.

When knitting with two yarns one of the yarns will sit below the other -- coming from underneath. It is this yarn -- picked up from under the other -- that is the dominant yarn.

The yarn is labelled “DK” (tan) and “Worsted” (brown) but they are actually fingering and light fingering at best. Holding the yarn doubled to get a true worsted weight. With 4.25 mm needles, my gauge is 5 sts per inch.

• CO 40 sts
• make 10 rounds of k2-p2 ribbing
• knit 2 rounds
• knit the chart 3 times total, but…
• after 1.5 reps of the chart, add an “afterthought thumb” of 6 sts (12 sts total for each thumb)
• knit 2 rounds
• decrease top of mitten in 8 sections (i.e. ~ k3, k2tog, rep from ~; knit 1 round; # k2, k2tog, rep from #; knit 1 round, etc.)
• continue decreasing until 8 sts left, then bind and tie (i.e. cut yarn, run yarn through live stitches, tighten and weave in ends)
• pick up 12 sts and make the thumb; k2tog around for the last round, bind and tie

The FO is so soft! Hope they’re warm too.