“You should make a pair of custom Selbu mittens, Catherine!” They said.

“It’ll be fun!” They said.

Okay I’ll admit it; designing a pair of mittens was fun. However, what they won’t tell you if just how long it will take you to make said patterns.

No, it’s not because the graph pattern of your choice is particularly hard, or the complexity of the mitten style. It’s hard because it takes SO LONG to actually make the pattern. That’s not the pattern creator’s fault, it’s the software that makes it hard.

Let me give you some context. In early November 2020 I was approached by a dear friend of mine to make a pair of custom mittens after I shared a picture of a beautiful pair I knitted earlier in the year. As this was going to be my first “Official Custom Mittens” I offered to make them if she could cover the cost of materials, labor, and shipping. She happily obliged.

Naturally I am a fool of a Took and figured that all I had to do was let my dear friend pick her desired colors, ‘Frankenstein’ some pattern designs that I have knitted before, and have them shipped off in about a month. This plan, even if it is a half-baked pipe-weed plan, had some problems.

Problem Number One: The original color choices were too close to each other to see the contrast of the pattern. Cue two weeks of waiting for new colors to arrive. Note to self: Keep color swatches for future projects in order to prevent this kind of problem from happening again.

Problem Number Two: The multiple patterns I planned on mashing together had just enough differences that simply flying by the seat of my pants didn’t work. This meant I needed to craft my own hand and palm pattern. At least that art degree I paid so much for worked so hard for will come in handy.