starting the year with a challenge

I went to work yesterday, even though I knew that I wasn't really feeling up to it. I knew that triage was necessary to deal with accumulated stuff from the office being closed for a week and a half. I did what needed to be done, dealt with the first urgent matter of 2008, and headed home in the middle of the afternoon.

The temperatures were in the single digits this morning, and while I was feeling better, I decided to keep my germs to myself today. Therefore, I've been churning away at a pair of mittens for a friend's birthday next week.

I realized yesterday that her birthday was next Wednesday, and that I'd better get casting on. I started this last night, and just finished the first mitt.

It's my first adventure in two-color knitting, and it's easier than I expected. I've been avoiding color projects for a while now, and I'm very glad that I took the plunge. The pattern is from Elliphantom Knits, her Herringbone Mitts. It took me quite a while to figure out how to hold the yarns so they didn't twist into a big mess (I don't have the dexterity to hold one of the yarns in my right hand). It also took an embarrassing amount of time to figure out that there was a repeating pattern on the even numbered rows. Hey, I'm sick, OK? The good news is that the second mitten should go faster, since I don't have to study the chart quite as carefully as I did for #1.

I love the look of the thumbs, and I think that the yarn is going to soften wonderfully after a warm water bath. My friend should certainly have a completed project for her birthday next week!

I don't know the yarns exactly, except that it's Cascade 220, and it's been in my stash for quite a while. The green is leftover from my Kiri shawl (finished two years ago?), and the blue was purchased this year for the intarsia class I took in Portland over the summer. I hope I have enough for the second mitten... that will get me to knit faster to see how it ends!