Finished mitt and yarn for new project

In her book Wendy Knits, Wendy Johnson mentions that she finished both fingerless mitts from her pattern (pages 198-199) in one day, between commutes both ways and a lunch hour. I drive to work, so knitting then is, sadly, not a possibility. But I had a very long, very tedious meeting today, and 2/3s of this mitt was finished during it. Almost makes me long for another dull meeting tomorrow so I can get the second one done! The yarn is some Knit Picks Shamrock, color Reilly, that I had sitting around. I'd bought it to make my mother a hat, then realized my mother never wears hats. It never really called to me for another project, till I thought of this one. These very easy mitts are a sort of practice run for the fancy stranded Composed Mitts in the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. A friend and I are going to be working on those at the same time, starting tomorrow. They take Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight, a wonderfully soft yarn.

This yarn--Elsebeth Lavold's Classic AL--I picked up last night at the sale at The Spinning Room. It was 30% off. I really, really don't need any more yarn (and yet I am going to Webs on Saturday!), but this yarn is ever so nice to knit with, and I like the color (midnight blue). It is destined to become the Cropped Cardigan with Leaf Ties (though I may not include the leaves at the end of the ties) from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits. It won't have the same fuzzy look as the one in the book, which is made out of an alpaca/angora blend, but I think it will be very nice for casual wear.

Thinking about sweaters and knitted tops, the Isabella Bird collection from The Territory Ahead has some lovely ones. The Sundial Cable V-Neck rather reminds me of Norah Gaughan designs, though I like hers better.