Not one color but two

Way back in the day, the lovely Katie gave me this book. Over the summer, I finally got around to knitting something from it.

These are the North Star Mittens, in Rowan Cashsoft DK, colors 500 (cream) and 521 (burgundy). I love this yarn--the acrylic will make it sturdy enough for mittens, while the merino and cashmere make it a pleasure to knit with. I think it also passes the "can Lanafactrix wear it around her neck?" test.

The pattern, not so thrilled. It was a bit confusing to read, with several major errors (including one in one of the charts). Having three sizes to choose from is nice--but not at the expense of pattern clarity. These were originally intended for me, but it turns out that my hands are not as ginormous as my feet. This is the medium size pattern, which is just a bit longer than I'd like in the fingers. Since I had more than enough yarn leftover--I bought four skeins, and these used less than a skein of each color--I'll just knit myself a pair in the smaller size and give these away for Christmas.

On the other hand (you see what I did there), despite my struggles with the pattern, the mittens were a quick and relatively painless knit, and they sure do look purty. This was the first time I'd done stranded knitting--I'm very pleased with the result. I can't figure out ~quite~ how to get my colorwork completely flat, but I think that will come with practice.