Just in time for spring

I finally finished the convertible glove / mittens (aka Urban Necessity) after hesitating over the mitten caps for a couple of weeks. I had these done down to the fingertips a few weeks ago, but wavered over using the diamond pattern as written for the cap. I was also put off by the fact that, despite knitting these at nearly the same time and using (I thought) the same row and stitch counts, they turned out to be asymmetrical. I guess it's a little weird, but that annoyed me enough to put them down for a while. In the end, I decided to abandon the pattern and use mirrored decreases (ssk / k2tog) from the end of my 5th finger until my fingertips, then k2tog around until I had 5 stitches left. I worked the cap a few times using some variations, but I think the shaping turned out best this way. I really liked this pattern--I found it a lot more intuitive than Broad Street from knitty. I found some pattern notes online that were really helpful in making the decision to knit Urban Necessity...I'll try and dig up the link. As I was knitting, I realized that you don't really need the 4th and 5th fingers to be uncovered and could use a cap for the thumb, because your first three fingers are really all you need to use...but I think the end result would look weird. I think I found a pattern online where someone had made that modification, but I can't find the link. I used DK weight yarn (Karabella Majestic) instead of worsted and compensated for the smaller gauge by knitting a larger size, which in retrospect was a good choice, since I think the fingers would've been bulkier in worsted yarn. If I knit it again, I'd consider using ribbing over the mitten cap to hold it in place better, but I think it looks fine as is. I also decided that I was annoyed by the presence of cotton yarn in my stash, especially since it wasn't enough to knit Sheldon. Instead, I decided to make some pinwheel washcloths in a smaller size than the last (teal) one, which was a little hard to handle. The purple one is going to my not-so-secret SP shortly, although I've dawdled too long to make it to the post office today. Right now, I have a rainbow scarf on the needles for Mike. I'm making it in Patons SWS rather than Noro, and I'm finding the striping wonderful. Yet another winter knit postponed until spring!