Cursing the Cable

After taking a long, hard look at my current UFOs I decided I probably shouldn't cast on anything new unless I could actually finish something first. I have at least 4 pairs of socks, 2 shawls, a pair of fingerless mitts and probably some other things lurking around here.
Since it's still pretty cold I decided the fingerless mitts would be a good addition to my wardrobe this winter and even into spring so I dug them out and started working on them again.
The pattern is Cursed Cable Mitts, it was gifted to me by a friend who wanted a buddy to knit them with her. I'm totally going to call her out and say that I'm not sure she's knitting them anymore. Sorry Becca.
I'm knitting it slowly because I find the cable to be very frustrating.

I adore the way it looks (albeit hard to see in this photo) like a woven panel that runs the length of the mitt) but it's a lot of cabling and I was trying to do it without a cable needle. It turns out that for this cable, without a cable needle doesn't work for me so I dug out a cable needle. I promptly lost that cable needle and tried a spare DPN, when that didn't work, I went to another style of cable needle that isn't quite the same. I miss the other one.
Ultimately, I'm working on them slowly, slowly and I hope to be finished sometime before next Christmas. I'm not sure that I will make them as long as written in the pattern either although I would like them a little longer than my typical mitts which are barely past the wrist. We'll have to see how long my cabling patience holds out.