Sooooo I should really finally watch Star Wars, huh?

(Well, technically I did watch Episode III, but only because the movie we wanted to see was sold out or something, and I have basically zero memory of it.)

My personal nerd failure aside, these mittens were too awesome to not make them for my friend Jasmin, who’s a huge Darth Vader fan. I mean, she once bought a Darth Vader clock at an artisan market in Budapest, so I was pretty sure she’d love them.

Obviously, the mittens turned out wayyyyyy to big, because some idiot (coughpointstoselfcough) didn’t check her gauge. I was excited, okay? Then I got waylaid by the decreases at the top, which still don’t make sense to me – the stitch count of front and back just don’t add up. But honestly, it doesn’t matter much in the end, I just started the front decreases earlier than the back ones.

That said, how great is this pattern? Knitting letters was a first. I got really excited when the “bing” at the bottom first took shape, and then couldn’t stop knitting. The stitches were a little uneven at first, but after I steam blocked them the letters were easily readable and you could immediately recognize Darth Vader’s pretty face mask thing! I learned a new technique, too, the Latvian braid. It seemed daunting at first, because I didn’t understand the written instructions for the life of me. Thank God there’s plenty of video tutorials out there. I learnt the technique very quickly with the help of Janel Laidman’s tutorial:

Pattern: Darth Mittens (Star Wars Tribute) by Therese Sharp

Yarn: Regia 4fädig (Fingering, 75% Wool/25% Nylon)