Morningtide Mitts

Back in December I had the pleasure of test-knitting a sweater pattern for Becky Herrick (my version here - and my goodness, I hadn't realized how much my hair has grown since then!)  Now, Becky has a new e-book out called Time on My Hands, full of patterns for mittens, gloves, and lots of fingerless mitts.  I think they're all lovely designs and I couldn't make up my mind which to start with, so eventually I decided I'd just begin at the beginning. 

So these are the "Morningtide" fingerless mitts.  Becky arranged the book by hour, associating each pattern with a time of day.  These are the ones for 6 AM, although I did not either wear or photograph them quite that early!

The colourwork is quite simple and fairly easy to memorize.  I loved how the striped thumb grows out of the main pattern and gives that little bit of contrast.  I'm attempting to work through my massive stash, and I'd like to see if I can knit all 9 of these patterns from stash yarn!  These mitts used a wool/alpaca/acrylic blend which I bought at Jo-Ann Fabrics at least 6 years ago (the camel-coloured MC), and an unlabeled Shetland wool (green).  Both were approximately DK or sportweight, and I used US #2 needles.  I made the size small, which is a little bit snug, but I expected that.  However I knew the large would be too large, and anyway I didn't think I'd have enough yarn.  The smalls fit me well enough, though I may eventually find someone with more slender hands to pass them on to and make myself another pair!

These were one of my traveling projects.  I don't knit these projects at home at all - in fact I don't even take them out of the bag.  This ensures that I always have something in my bag to work on; there's less likelihood of the knitting being forgotten at home!  So these mitts were made on the bus traveling to and from school, and a little bit in class and at work.  (I have one professor who doesn't mind my knitting -- in fact she asked me if I could teach her, and joked that I should make mitts for the entire class!  This is not as daunting as it seems; there are only three students including me -- and my "work" consists of sitting at a desk in the listening library, making sure no one walks off with equipment and trying to keep myself amused.)

P.S.  It's incredibly difficult to photograph your own hands.  Thank goodness for the self-timer on my camera!

Edit:  Jenny asked about the colourwork and whether the carries on the back caught my fingers.  Here's an inside-out photo:

If you look at the diamond motif in the bottom left corner, you can see that I left that longest "float" or carry to its own devices.  I think that one is 6 stitches, and I probably should have caught it up.  If you look at the diamond up and to the right, you can see that the green yarn is looped around the carry, holding it to the fabric.  I tried to find something online demonstrating the catching method I use, but nothing's showing up on a quick look.  If anyone is interested, I could attempt a brief photo demonstration, but it's really not difficult to do -- just difficult to explain!