Another Take on Mitts

After the lessons on mitts from the Arizona ATV trip, I thought I'd take another run at them, only modifying the design slightly. These are a similar shape, but longer, and with a much finer yarn. I spun a sport weight single from a beautiful blue faced leicester roving (okay, I'm hooked - my new favorite wool) and used little #2 needles. I tried a lace pattern that was supposed to run up the back of the hands, but being my first attempt at lace, and the thick and thin nature of my somewhat amateurish spinning, it gets a little lost. Never having worked tiny before, I wasn't sure how to work the thumb gusset (increase every two rows, every three?) and had trouble positioning the thumb in relation to the lace strip. Perhaps using a pattern would have helped, but that just takes all the sport out of it, don't you think? I made the hand extend quite a bit farther down the fingers than is typical, and the thumb as well for a little more warmth and protection. The rib on the fingers is a twisted rib I got from the Twisted Sister's Sock book, and it is quite a bit more dense than I expected, but it does solve the problem of the palm rolling down when you put your hand in your coat sleeve. (Or in a bigger mitten, or grab a bucket handle, etc.)
For a future project, I'm thinking about closing the top over the pinkey and ring fingers, making a sort of mitten with two finger tips out. Don't think I've ever seen any like that. (Maybe there's a reason why...)

I learned:
I love blue faced leicester - flows like butter from the roving, soft as any marino, strong and beautiful.
Smaller stitches make a nicer fabric, if you don't need density
Smaller stitches take a lot longer
You have to pay attention to make lace
I'm a big fan of mitts