What was I thinking?

It's true. I've gotten cocky about my knitting--thinking I can do anything, if I just work at it. It's not true. These Tiffany mittens are a real challenge. I've had a terrible time getting started properly on them and now that I'm pretty well into the first one, I can't figure out a comfortable way to read the charts. I guess my short-term memory is shot, because the best I seem to be able to do is glance at the chart, repeat to myself, three pink, one blue, two pink, then try to remember those six stitches long enough to do them. And then repeat the process with the next six stitches. It takes forever.

Just getting started on them proved difficult. I had decided to try doing them "toe-up", reversing the pattern instructions, because I have an aversion to Kitchner-ing and I think the magic cast-on for toes--or fingers in this case--is, well, magic. Plus I figured, I could wait to decide exactly how to arrange the colors in the cuff until I could see exactly how the palm part of the mitten looked.

Start number one: Way too small. About 10 rows in, I realized my guage was way too tight, despite having swatched. Start number two: Way too messy. Don't know what went wrong, but it looked bad. Start number three: Ahh, success at last...the knitting was neat, the cast on perfect and the pattern falling into place. I thought so, at least, until the next day when I tried to pick up where I had stopped. I couldn't quite figure out where I was in the pattern. After puzzling over it for 10 or 15 minutes, counting and recounting stitches and colors. I realized....wait, I have 68 stitches on the needles. I should only have 60. How I managed this I do not know. How I managed this and still thought I was "on pattern", I really don't know.

So start four: I gave up on reversing the direction and started with the cuff. And, well, it's OK. In two evenings, I finished the cuff of one mitten and am about to start on the palm portion. Only thing: I somehow did the cuff pattern upside down. But I figure, it's nearly symetrical and abstract in any case, so it looks fine to me. Just hope my secret mitten pal doesn't compare the picture on Knitty with my execution too closely!