got the yarn, need a pattern

i wrote that i gifted my kick ass red mitties to the boy's teacher, and i dug out the new yarn that i wanted to make my mitties with!  to wit:



this is queensland collection leche, in luscious red and mint.  yarn is so soft and luxurious, but winding it on the ball winder was a bit of a pickle.  i have 218 yards of both colors.  i was thinking the red was a brighter - guess i was thinking of the ella rae lace merino that i got the same day as the leche.

this yarn would be perfect for mittens.  my question is, what pattern?

digging through the ravelry patterns, i found this plait cable mittens pattern, which would be really cute and a lovely reminder of the cabled mitten i found not long ago, the one i think my nana made for me.  i'm not a cable person, but this pattern would help me stretch a bit.

then i found this cute owl pattern.  i am fancying owls at the moment, and i do have an owl hat pattern to make for the kiddos, these mittens would be so adorable!

then there's the ever popular fiddlehead mittens, but that's in a class all by itself.  not quite right for the yarn, but dang, i love these mittens.

and i love eskimimi's flutter butterfly mittens.  so beautiful.


i look at the yarn, and i toy with knitting plain red mittens, then plain green mittens.  but i look at the yarns together, and toy with finding a pattern that i can use both colors together.  the combination is spicy, to  me, and i just want to call whatever i knit with them "chili lime".  nutters, right?

i have a while to make a decision.  i have some holiday knitting i should finish.  but boy, that yarn does call out to me, begging to be knit with.

patterns

my loose knitting patterns have been a jumble as of late.  i use 4 plastic accordion files to store my patterns, and they were getting really overstuffed.  i buy these files at target, where they are occasionally sold in the dollar bins.  i bought them with hubby and our bill filing in mind, but he did not want to use them, so i decided i'd use them for my patterns.

my patterns are sorted by socks, sweaters, toys, hats, scarves, mittens, dishcloths, household, holiday, etc. etc.  i decided to sort these categories further by woman, man, child.  so in the sweaters category, i have women's sweaters, men's sweaters and children/baby.  i did the same for hats and socks.  i had a shawl category that i sorted by shawl and poncho.  it took a couple of hours, but i tamed my patterns.

here are the fruits of my labor:



these are all of my files.




these files contain my hats/scarves, shawls/ponchos, socks and blanket square patterns.




household/jewelry, holiday/toys, more socks, assorted patterns that i culled from magazines and the patterns are all mixed up (i might as well had kept the issue instead).




sweaters and WIPs.  the WIPs file is usually in my knitting bag - it contains all the patterns of current projects, plus those i want to knit someday.




i store my patterns on a shelf in my desk.  there isn't enough room for all the folders.  but they're a lot neater, and it's easier to find what i need.