branching out

Both literally and in terms of knitting technique, as that was the name of this pattern.

These are the "Branching Out" mitts from the Coastal Knits book, which I got for Christmas in 2011. This was also my first foray into colorwork other than stripes, and I think that I handled it pretty well overall! They could probably use a good blocking to even the stitches out, but as usual, I'm impatient and wanted to show off my finished project! Also, I may want to wear these tonight, since despite the fact that we're finally scraping into the 60s, my hands are still perpetually cold.

Aside from the colorwork, this was also my first attempt at a thumb gusset instead of just a hole! I think it went pretty decently. And they fit really well, too-- I know they look very long, but I don't mind most of my fingers being covered. Aside from playing the flute, I should still be able to mostly use my hands fine.

It was a little bit of a challenge to come up with yarn that would work, since I can't do the wool thing, but I ended up using the Milky Whey yarn that I got last summer at the beach yarn shop. It's half-soy, half-milk (!), and absolutely lovely to work with and to wear--it's so soft! Once again, I seriously overestimated how much yarn I needed, and have at least 2/3 of a skein of the tan and maybe around 1 1/4 of the blue left over, so I think a matching slouchy hat will be in order. If I can find that full ball of yarn, that is--somehow, between last night and the previous time I'd worked on it, the entire unused skein of the blue disappeared from my knitting bag! I hope it turns up as I'm packing!

Also in knitting news, I was recently gifted the Craftsy class of my choice by Gwen, as an early wedding present! It was a tough call, because there's a lot of tempting sewing classes that I haven't signed up for yet. But in the end, I decided to sign up for the Knit Lab class, because I've realized that there's some finishing details, like sewing up seams and especially weaving in ends, that I could really use some extra work on to take my knitting to the next level. I probably won't get to it before the wedding, but hopefully I have some yarn in the stash that will be good to use for the class project.

Guess what? I also have a sewing project to show! But not in this post, as I still need to take pictures.