I'm working on the Fingerless Mitts pattern from Beginner's Guide to Knitting in the Round, and it looks like these mitts are going to be lovely.
I was super interested in whatever weird stitch was featured on the body. Isn't this neat? It reminded me of a dishcloth I crocheted a couple of weeks ago. See the similarities?
And it turns out making the mitt was a lot like crocheting the dishcloth. It's not often that I catch myself knitting an accessory and think, "Hey, this is like crocheting a dishcloth," but that's what happened here. Cool! You just slip a stitch, knit three stitches, and then go back to knit that slipped stitch. And yes, then you've decreased your stitches. You just work some yarnovers on your next round, and then you have two rows of straight knitting before you start the lovely little pattern all over again. This is a fantastic practice for someone new to knitting in the round, especially because you also use double pointed needles.
I like knitting on double pointed needles well enough, but mostly only if I'm using wooden ones. There's a lot of jangling around with aluminum needles.
That's probably why I skipped working on the thumb.
But then again, this is still a work in progress. I might just save the thumbs for last. I'm not exactly looking forward to working twelve stitches on three needles, but it's only for a few rows. Any time I have to pick up stitches, I get a little worried about gappy holes where I picked up my stitches. But I'm hopeful this time. Everything else on this pattern has gone pretty well, so why not the thumbs?! These are turning out wonderfully, and I'm hoping to have these finished in time for some cooler fall weather.
I hope you're excited about your WIPs as well!