After a Long Battle: Mermaid Mittens Finished

This project was a battle at times. It started as my X-mas present to the women in the family - 2 skeins of Koigu each. This turned out to be a strategic move, as it is less bad to suffer together.
Actually I am really happy with the result, so let's not overdo the suffering part:I knitted tightly on 2.25 mm needles (a bit hard on the hands) and followed The Yarn Owl's instructions for thumb gusset and fingers, which worked out perfectly after switching left and right to their meaningful places in the instructions. But that's OK, I also still have problems with those words myself.
I made a tubular cast-on with these instructions, works beautifully for this project, but did give rise to one problem - I wanted the bind-off to be 1) identical and 2) invisible. This is where the project hibernated a bit, but after some practice rounds with these instructions, I did pull myself together and got it done. And I am very happy with it, the beginning and end do look very similar: