Inspiration Saturday/Tokyo tales: Memories of the Matcha Mitts

I know inspiration usually comes at the start of a project, but in this case, I'm taking my inspiration from something I finished last year.

Yup, I'm never letting go of that Tokyo trip.  I've told you about some of the yarn, sushi, and donut-esque desserts, now I'm remembering my Matcha Mitts, the cuffs I knit as part of a swap themed around tea while I was there.  My spoilee had a preference for mitts, and I thought ones with a lacy leaf pattern would be like tea leaves.  Especially in a lovely light green yarn with a touch of sparkle from Heavenly Fiber.  So I packed up my DPNs and took my WIP on a whirlwind tour of Tokyo.

In front of the wishing tree at the Meiji shrine, I didn't purchase my own wooden tablet for posting a wish, but hopefully some of the magical powers of that Camphor tree were imbued into those few stitches:

At the train museum, they had these interesting stained glass windows about life on the train, and one of them depicted a little old lady knitting on her commute.  In solidarity, I had to bring out my own:

I was able to finish at least one of the mitts during my trip, but here is the completed pair:

And now they are off having other adventures somewhere else, and as you've read for the past few weeks, my current WIP has been having slightly less exotic, but nonetheless tasty (pancakes!), adventures being knit while I travel around Austin.

For more inspiration, go to Woolen Diversions.