These are to be a Christmas gift for Michael.

I swatched with #6 needles for the Teen/Adult size, but got gauge for the XL. Then I swatched with size 5’s and got gauge for the Teen/Adult, but chickened out, fearing they would be too small. 36 sts divided by 6 sts/inch equals a circumference of 6”, not 7” as the pattern states. So I went with the 6’s for the XL. I often end up tightening up anyway, and even if not, I’d rather have them be too big than too small.

Worked both mitts concurrently, using Signature needles, magic loop. I didn’t have 2 needles the same, but I did have both 32” & 40” cables & both 5” and 6” tips. I prefer the longer tips, so I used one of each tip for each cable, knitting with the longer tips off of the shorter ones.

CUFF:
Joined on the first round instead of working one row flat first, because I prefer the look of the other side of the cast on to face out.

If I were to make these again, I don’t think I would do the Latvian cast on prescribed by the pattern. I really didn’t find it to be any stretchier than my favorite crochet cast on. In fact I almost ripped back the cuffs to start over, because I thought the edge was too tight, but my husband, who has large hands, insisted that they were fine (I had him try these on constantly through the whole process). If I had started over though, I think I would have liked to try this cast on, demonstrated by Roxanne Richardson: Tubular Cast On in the round using any standard CO.

Did twisted rib, as I prefer the look of that. My knit stitches always look kind of sloppy in ribbing. The twisted rib looks a lot cleaner, and I probably have the leeway to be a little tighter, as that would be.

THUMB GUSSET:
Did an extra set of thumb gusset increases to make the base of the thumb a little roomier (my husband tried them on and thought they were a tad tight in that area).
This meant 14 sts increased instead of 12, through round 20 instead of 18, for a total of 50 sts instead of 48.

I had a lot of trouble with the thumbs after this point. I’m not sure why, but I just couldn’t make them look good when I followed the directions, so I ended up doing quite a bit of fudging as follows:

After slipping the 14 sts to a holder (I used 2 locking stitch markers, 7 on each), I moved the start of round over 4 sts, so that the gap did not fall at the break between needles. It was much easier to bridge the gap and pull it tight if it was all on one needle. So at this point I still had 36 total sts for the hand, but had 14 sts on one needle & 22 on the other, instead of 18 on each.
Did not cast any on.
Moved the 4 sts back after a few rounds.

THUMB:
Moved the start of round over 2 sts, again so that the gap did not fall between needles.
Picked up 4 sts, as instructed. There was no good spot for this though, probably because I didn’t do the initial increase at the gap. Ended up doing a lot of fancy stitchwork with the tails in this area to make it look nice when I was done.
Did not decrease any, so had 18 sts for the thumb instead of 12, since I already had 2 extra from the extra gusset increase. This turned out to be a good fit with the extra stitches.

BIND OFF:
I found it hard to control the tension with the Icelandic bind off that was instructed by the pattern. If I didn’t snug it up at all, the bound off stitch would be too loose and sloppy, but if I tugged it before returning the stitch and inserting for the next step, it would be too tight. What I found was that it helped to give it a little tug after the stitch was returned and the needle inserted to draw the next stitch through.

All in all, even though I had some trouble with the execution, I think that I would make these mitts again. I like the sharp clean lines of them. They are very attractive mitts. I hope that Michael likes them!

Update, 12/25/24:
Michael seemed genuinely pleased to receive these, and they fit him beautifully.