Stranded Mittens

First, a breath of spring. Yesterday the air felt softer and the light more yellow and brighter. Spring is coming. And today I went from the car into the airport and then from the car into the store without my down jacket. Still, I'm enjoying knitting mittens:

I'm trying to riff on the Komi mittens in Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens. The yarn is Cascade Eco in grey and white. Atypical for me, I'm using stash and enjoying it. And I'm trying to just do a little of this pattern and that from the reticulated pattern section in Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. The overall pattern specs are from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.

I blocked half the mitten before continuing; it felt very tight when I slipped it on for a test. Especially with the thick floats inside the mitten. But the yarn softens quite a bit, and even with the stranded colorwork, I was pleased to find that it fit so far. I'm getting a gauge of about 5 stitches to the inch, worked the ribbing over 32 stitches and then increased to 38 for the hand part of the mitten. FYI - I wear a size 7 1/2/glove.