There are more important things than mittens...

... but this December has been unusually cold, and mittens are crucial. I also got two mitten books for Christmas (well, one of them was from myself...).

So here we go:

"Norske vottar og vantar" by Annemor Sundbø - a gift from my in laws (they might be getting mittens for next Christmas..)

I modified the pattern on the front page of the book, Fuglevott i fargar, to fit a child. I'm quite happy with how they turned out. The fit my big handed five years old. I used Gjestal Superwash Sport, Gjestal Vestlandsgarn, and Gjestal Østlandsgarn from my aunt's stash. Details on Ravelry.

Most of the patterns in the book are copies of old mittens from Annemor Sundbø's collection. Some are modified patterns from machine knit mittens, others are direct copies from handmade mittens.

The book is full of inspirational photos and text, and there are several patterns I'd like to knit, like the Fugl Fønix, Olivenvott and Damevott med liljer.

Some of the patterns are also found in Terri Shea's book about Selbu mittens. Among them the Hugin and Munin mitten, that comes both in child and adult size. Most of the mittens only have one size. I would have liked more details about the sizing of the mittens. There is a list in the book, but it would be nice to see the measurements for each pattern, I believe. And as Pinneguri wrote on her blog a while ago, the patterns could have gone through a better tech editing.

But all in all, it's a very nice book, agreable to look in, with pretty lay out. But if you never have knitted a mitten before, you should probably choose a different pattern. And so far the book is only available in Norwegian. Here are my Hugin and Munin, btw, almost finished:

Details on Ravelry. For some reason, the pattern on the palm is not symmetrical (probably because the original mitten did not have a symmetric palm pattern.) I don't always love symmetry, but when it comes tom mitten palm pattern, I generally prefer symmetry. Here, accidentally, I made a mistake on the 2nd mitten. The result was a symmetric palm pattern! So a happy mistake.

Can you see the difference?

I've also casted on for a new pair of Pepperkakevotter. This time with lamb, cat, snail and pig, and a peasant thumb. I'm just about to upload new charts, if you're interested.

The other mitten book is this: Colorwork Creations by Susan Anderson-Freed. I haven't made any of the patterns yet, but there are several lovely ones, I especially like this little fellow.

A Christmas gift, from me to you

There will be a proper pattern later, to buy.

At the moment, I’m giving away the charts for free, for you to play with at Christmas. If you are familiar with stranded colourwork and mitten knitting, you should manage just fine. The cuff has 42 sts. The rest of the mitten 48 sts, so you should increase 6 sts. With my gauge, 24 sts per 10 cm/4 inches, they fit me, woman medium. With thinner yarn they might become nice children mittens. Have fun!

download now

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This looks weird....

Ready to cut the steeks.....

Button solution!

Remember my button problem? I followed Mary Lou's advice, and got new buttons.

The beautiful, vintage, etsy buttons found a new home on my old black coat, in stead of boring black plastic mittens.

Then I needed a hat to go with the buttons - so I made this:

Well, actually I was going to make a small cowl, working in the round. But as I was trying it on, I saw it wanted to be a hat in stead. The pattern was gifted to me through Ravelry from a blog friend, Josefina Knits from Chile. She makes pretty cabled cowls and other accessories - and is looking forward to autumn..

The pompom was quickly made with a little bit of yarn, fork and scissors, learned from EskimimiKnits.

Edited to add information about the cowl/hat pattern: It's Flowers and leaves cowl, by Gabriela Ordenes. She also has an Etsy shop.

Christmas knit along - December

Two gifts in December: Surprise, surprise, two pairs of mittens!

Another pair of Elliphantom's Sprig Mittens. Yarn from my aunt's stash.

And one pair of football mittens, for the local fooball club, Lillehammer Fotballklubb, LFK. Yarn from the same source.

I don't think any of the receivers are following this blog.

Hooray for Free pattern testers group

This must be one of Ravelry's nicest group! I reedited the pattern for the hat I made for my mother last year. And put up a request for test knitting in this group. Within a couple of days I had six test knitters. Some of them have already finished their hats. I decided to make another hat along with my test knitters. Here's my "snow gazing hat". I ran out of green yarn, but I think the blue on the top worked fine.

Here's the big dipper:

And here Cassiopeia, one of my favourite constellations.

The pattern has been updated with one more size, so now you can make it for a toddler and up to adult large.

The pattern is available both in English (Stargazing hat)

and Norwegian (Stjernekikkerlue)

Btw - I didn't get anyone to test knit the Norwegian version of the pattern, so if anyone is interested, just make a comment, send me a Ravelry message or send me an e-mail!