A design sees the light of day

Interweave announced the publication of Knitted Gifts. If you go to page 4 on the preview, you can see a better photo of these finger-less mitts. However, the photo has the palm side out and no photo of the back of the hand design so I'm presenting my ugly photos of the completed mittens.

Here's a photo of the back of the hand design - it is a simple Bavarian twisted st pattern in two colors. The idea is that these represent gold chains that brides in Northern India often wear on their hands. The chains are connected to a bracelet on the wrist and rings on the fingers. Click on the photo to enlarge it to see the detail better.
The palm side - which is shown to better effect in the Interweave photo - is my interpretation of traditional mehndi or henna designs. It is knitted in basic stranded knitting with some Armenian knitting techniques to handle some of the longer floats. By combining a nearly-solid with a hand-painted sock yarn (both from Lorna's Laces), you get a very complex looking design that really only takes good chart reading skills to make.
I also finished the Outback Mohair shawl last night. I washed it this morning and here it is, spread out for drying. I decided not to block it because the recipient isn't going to. She has little kids and I wanted to make sure it would look good washed gently in the machine and dried flat.

This shows the length and the width. That is 3 skeins of the Outback Mohair knitted on US size 13 needles with 100 sts. I think it is a good size to cuddle under. It is about my height (62").

Here is the detail of the st pattern. I love feather and fan. So much loveliness for so little work. I threw in the garter st row every pattern repeat to show off the wave of the fan. I'm really pleased with how this has turned out and I hope the recipient likes it.

Next up is actually my entry for the Knitting Camp contest. The theme is Recycled Knits. It has been a real pleasure looking through the historical gansey books finding a design to make for my son. So many gorgeous designs, so little time. I've narrowed it down to the 3 or 4 and now I need to decide which one I really want to make.