Featherwing Crochet: Friendship Mittens

Ahhh, it's been too long again since I've posted! Time just seems to be flying away from me once more. Lately I've been scrambling to finish up some projects that have been on going for just way too long. Like the booby pillow for my brother-in-law. I was supposed to make it for his birthday in August!!! So far I have the actual pillow base complete. It's stuffed and sewn together. I have to make the boobies complete with baby bottle nipples. The problem is, I HATE the yarn I'm using. It is so unbelievably ROUGH. It actually rips the skin off my thumb after working with it for awhile. So I've been putting it aside for months. I really don't like having 'yarn thumb'. And with my thumb ripped apart, I can't crochet anything else. I know I'm disappointing him and it's bugging me to no end. I love making things for other people. So I am determined to get this stupid thing done by the end of the weekend!! Anyhoo, awhile back I finished my mittens to match my hat and scarf. This pattern was very interesting indeed. I had to learn 3 new stitches. Extended single crochet, foundation single crochet, and foundation double crochet. I really like the ESC, it gives you a nice dense fabric, but it still has some flexibility. The foundation stitches were a little difficult to understand at first. I plan on posting a tutorial on those later. Basically the foundation stitches give you the beginning chain and the first row of crochet at the same time, this way the beginning chain is just as elasticy as the rest of your piece. This is especially nice for garments because you don't get that tight feeling that the ordinary chain stitches give you. I really enjoy working with cables, so this was a perfect pattern for me!