RSVP with Mittens!

It's that moment we've all been waiting for!  The Wedding Mittens are FINITO!

Pattern: Wedding Mittens by Jorid Linvik
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Merino 2005 (Purple- I can't find a link!) and Knit Picks Bare- Superwash Fingering Weight
Needles: US 3
Thoughts: If I were a smarter/less lazy knitting, I would have figured out a way to do a gusset on these mittens.  A gusset just provides a nicer thumb than picking up the stitches.  The lack of gusset wouldn't stop me from knitting the pattern or any of Jorid's patterns again.  (She wrote the failed Doggy mittens pattern too... I might pick those back up again...)

These mittens are for my friend Erica, who is marrying Scott (hence the "E" and "S" initials in the hand), this January.

I've been wanting to knit these mittens for awhile and when Erica announced a winter wedding, it seemed like the right thing to send her.  I'll be sending her these along with our RSVP... we are coming Erica- it better not be too cold!!!  The purple is hopefully close to Erica's chosen wedding colors.

If you're like me, I always like to see the inside of stranded knitting- and so I've taken a few shots for you with the inside/outside view.  I'm getting better and better at faire isle mittens, and almost feel ready to bite off a project with more than 2 colors.  ALMOST.  (Let's not be crazy/over-confident now!)

Also off the needles for 2012 is the purple hat project.

Pattern: Various- although most are from the Sensational Knit Socks book by Charlene Schurch.  You can look on this link to my Ravlery page, that hopefully better outlines what hat is what pattern.
Yarn: 2 balls of Bernat Baby Softee in "soft lilac"
Needles: US 6
Thoughts: I actually had enough yarn to knit 14 hats, well 13 full hats- I had to add some white striping to the final hat in order to get me through.  It's great to have all of this out of my stash!

The goal for 2013 is to knit 12 more hats, this time in pinks, to bust the pink Bernat Softee out of the stash.  I'll set my minimum to 12, but I have enough stash to probably knit more than that.  Rules will be similar, no hat can be the same.  (Stitch pattern CAN be the same, but color scheme can't.)

With those two projects off the needles, I'm hoping to close out my year by finishing up the Balearique socks, started so long ago.  I've picked up those again and this is my progress so far.

Can you imagine people?  I might be starting off January 2013 with a clean slate.... a year of exciting, new projects to knit.  So tell me- what should I cast on to start my new year?