I'm still knitting

While I might not have been doing much blogging, I've been knitting pretty much non-stop.  I've been really intrigued with work I've seen others do on Latvian mittens, and finally picked up the book Latvian Mittens: Traditional Designs and Techniques.  I've been really impressed with what some others have done from the book, and wanted to try my hand at Graph 6 - District of Latgale.

After looking at what others had done, I tried coming up with a mix of colors I thought would be similar.  I'm using Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift for the first time, which I'm finding to be a stronger yarn than the Brooklyn Tweed I originally planned to use.

Moorit/Shaela, Shetland Black, and Ginger

And to make sure you'll get good contrast in the colors, you can take a b&w pic to see if they look different enough.  Yup, the left and middle colors have nice contrast!  My plan was the use the left color (Moorit/Shaela) as the contrast color on top of Shetland Black.

I'm not following the pattern from the book as-is - I didn't want to go through two sets of four Latvian braids, plus I'm not real excited about the big, flaring cuffs on many of the mitts.  So I'm just winging it, taking notes as I do.  And, wow, the Ginger is really "hot" up against the Shetland Black!

Ok, the Ginger's too bright...I'm going to try working in an additional color (Burnt Umber) and see how it looks.  If I don't love these colors, I can rip it all out and try again.

I'm liking the Burnt Umber!

Making progress on my first corrugated ribbing.  Unlike other ribbing, this has ZERO elasticity!

Then I tried switching to the Moorit/Shaela for part of the pattern shown in the book.  This is the color I was going to use for the main pattern in the hands, and I'm glad I tested it here first - it is not the contrast I hoped for!

Continuing the pattern from the book - back to the Ginger and Burnt Umber.

And finally into the hand - WOW, I'm so glad I switched my color plans.  And while this isn't like my original hopes for the color combination, I'm really happy with it!

Annnnnnd I kinda hit burn out on stranded color work - especially when I realized my gauge tightened up some between the cuff and the hand.  The hand part is getting pretty snug, which is depressing.  I'm taking a break from this project and doing some lace work for a bit.  Just before these mitts I'd finished several stranded hats (Deathflake x2, Latvian Star, Pebble Cliff), plus the Polar Bear Chullo hat, so I was probably sticking with one method of knitting for too long for someone as easily distracted as me...  I'll come back to these soon - promise!