New Year = New Mittens

Happy new year!
I hope everyone is off to a good start for 2011.
I had a wonderful time this holiday season.  Lots of visiting family, and it was so much less stressful being back in my hometown.  There's nothing like being able to go home and fall asleep in your own bed after a busy day!  I also got some yummy fibery goodies as gifts, including alpaca yarn, rose wood crochet hooks and a wonderful book of knitted hat patterns.

We had a few family & friends over for new years eve; and new years day was mostly spent on the couch watching movies (Riding in Cars with Boys) and knitting.

Here's Sol, looking a bit hungover:

 

Over the holidays, I was busy working on some mittens for myself using some of my hand-dyed angora-merino yarn.  Since my supply is almost out, I thought I better save some for myself!   I was inspired by Laura from Prairie Peasant and the mittens she knit from some of the yarn she purchased from me:

I forgot to take a picture of the yarn before I knit it, but here are mine:

 

I used one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns from my Knitting without Tears book; its a pretty laid back pattern and it was the first project I have made using one of her patterns.  I believe she just calls it "36 stitch mittens".  Luckily for me, they turned out a bit long, which is perfect because I have really long fingers.  It was fun to knit with the yarn and watch how the colors changed and pooled.  On both mittens, a different pattern appeared on the front and back, the front colors pooled more while on the back the colors striped more.. fun!  And so far, the mittens are really warm and I now understand how angora bunnies stay so toasty all the time!

It was also one of the few times I enjoyed knitting on smaller needles.  I have pretty bad eyes and often find my eyes go buggy if I work on really fine projects.  But this was not bad, and now I am even thinking about trying my hands at a pair of socks!