A lonely mitten

i was flipping through A Knitter's Almanac and there was a passage about how the author thought that mittens should be knit in the summertime when the knitter could take their time and make beautiful mittens, rather than in the winter time when the mittens would be more utilitarian. while i did not end up making the mittens from the Almanac (not yet anyway) i did take the advice and decided to try a pattern that has been on my "to knit" list for a very long time while i'm soaking up the sun in Tucson.

Pattern: Anemoi mittens by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in camel heather and rainforest heather
Size 1 dpns

it took me just over a week to finish the first mitten and i love how it turned out! this project also marked numerous firsts for me... first tubular cast on, first stranded colorwork project, first project in which i held the yarn in my left hand (one of the colors anyway), and first project knit on rather small needles in the round.

palm view

there is a section of the "diamond" pattern up above the swirly bit that can be repeated to add length. due to my freakishly long fingers, i had to repeat this section once and i feel like it makes it look funny. too much diamond pattern and not enough swirly bit or something. or i'm being overly critical, but whatever. the plus side of knitting one's own mittens (and i assume gloves if i were masochistic enough to try knitting gloves) is that you can make the thumb (and fingers) as long as you like so they fit just right.

now i just need to get moving on the other half of the pair...