Wildcat Mittens

One of the most enjoyable and quick projects I knit this year were these "wildcat" mittens that I made for one of the young friends I work with. They are just your basic gored thumb mitten knit with 1 strand sport weight wool and 1 strand of Funny. I am a little bit afraid to blog about them, for fear that other young friends will see this blog and wonder why I didn't knit them a pair. I acknowledge it might have been a bit unfair of me to have made a pair for just 1 of my 14 students, but here was my reasoning:

1) At the time, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could actually knit 14 pairs of mittens by Christmas while working full time at the real job, teaching at my LYS, creating the kits and packaging for Knitter's Journey Knit-with-Wire kits, knitting hats and mittens like crazy for the school Christmas store/craft fair, and meeting the yearbook deadline.

2) I reasoned that I was making a proto-type for future craft fair mittens, I had to work out the pattern any way.

3) I chatted with Young Friend's Mom about knitting, and she seemed to really appreciate handmade things, so I knew they would be well cared for and appreciated.

4) I regularly give out prizes for accomplishments in my class and Young Friend had done well and qualified for a prize

5) He asked me if I would make him a pair.

Let's hope that my other 13 students don't learn the secret to getting a pair of mittens out of me. Surely they won't want mittens in Spring?

Let's see, if I start now and knit all summer, I might have mittens for all my students by Fall. Of course, that would take care of this year's students. Then there's next year's students. Oh, and my lunch table. And the entire kindergarten since I work with them on so many special projects, let's see, I think that's 70 pair. Oops, I forgot last year's students. Oh, dear. . .