Skills Upgrade: FAILURE

Remember last month when I learned to knit by magic loop with those chunky warm mittens?  I figured since I had that down, it was time to try two-at-a-time knitting (where you knit a pair of something at the same time using one circular needle and two balls of yarn).  And since I had a pair of fingerless mitts to make for my Mom and two full travel days going to and from a holiday in California (!!!), lets just jump in and see how it goes.

Uh...yeah.  That was tedious.  I spent more time detangling the cables and two strands of yarn than I did knitting.

Maybe I should've used a shorter cable.  Maybe if I'd tried this with a thicker yarn than DK.  Maybe if the pattern wasn't twisted rib (AARRRGHHH).  Maybe if I'd done more research than a quick google before leaving to catch our 5:50 am flight.  Whatever the reason, this was beyond tedious and despite a 14 hour travel day, I got less than 2 inches knit.  TWO INCHES!

I'm a slow knitter, but not that slow.

I love this yarn - so soft and pretty.  Oh superfine alpaca, you're super fine.

Anywho, I eventually ditched one of the mitts and continued on with just one, and it went so much faster.

Not fast enough though, because all my Mom is getting for Christmas (other than the aforementioned blanket) is a box with the two pictures above, a tiny swatch of the yarn, and an IOU note.  Oops.