Never out of season
May 15, 2008 by rippedoffknitter
Pattern: From a book on the history of mittens that I found at the library and can’t remember the name of..
Yarn: Peer Gynt colour 242 red and some grey with a lost ballband, 2 balls each.
Needles: 3.5 mm babmoo dpns
When I go to the library I often end up in the hobby section browsing books thinking “why on earth will people spend time and money on flowerbinding? Fly fishing? Model trains? Stamps? Or even crochet?” And then I load up on books with knitting patterns, knitting techniques and knitting history, confident that I am very smart, clever and wise to spend lots and lots of time and money to play with two sticks and a string.
In one of those books I found this pattern for a man size Norwegian mitten and liked it so much that I immediately made a copy. In fact, I like it so much that I am considering knitting it for myself with thinner yarn. And because I lost my last pair of favourite mittens on the bus this winter and the bus company had given them to Salvation Army before I had a chance to pick them up. Hope someone appreciates them.
These mittens were made as a birthday present for my Grandfather, who in spite of being closer to 90 than 80 needs something to keep his hands warm on his daily mile-long walks. ( Metric miles that is.. I took the bike to work today. Yay. ) I found some other patterns that I used as a base to get started with the cuffs and thumb increases, and kept the inside of the hand in a 1×1 checkerboard pattern, not just because it is the easiest of all and uses the same amount of both colours so you avoid too much yarn tangling, but also because it creates the warmest and most wearable fabric. I had to make up a little pattern for the thumbs but it came out OK.
The best of all is that I can see how much better and more even my stranded knitting has become after the dominant yarn exercises with the Zebra hat. I really think I will knit a pair of Norwegian Mittens for myself for next winter.
If you , like me, don’t understand the point of crochet, maybe this will make you change your mind:
My mother made this to organize all her earrings and I think it turned out like a little piece of art in the bathroom. It is just a piece of painted wood covered with a crocheted mesh and you can make it any size you need to accommodate your bling-bling. Actually I’m sure you could use a knitted mesh as well…maybe a lace panel or a cable along one side?
Could that book possibly be Selbuvotter?