Today is Valborg in Sweden. Tonight we light bonfires and celebrate that spring is here!
It´s been a long and rather cold and snowy winter. I´ve made heaps of hats and mittens. And I can´t seem to stop.
But at least my new pair of mittens have a design suitable for spring. Flowers in full bloom.
I call this mitten Britta. I´m contemplating calling it Britta Blom, but I´m not sure if that is too naff.
If you have an opinion, please leave a comment! I don´t want to give this cute mitten a naff name if I can help it.
This pattern has both Scandinavian and Scottish influences. It´s not a Fair Isle pattern at all – but since I have used more than two colours it´s not true to Swedish/Norwegian knitting traditions either. So far I haven´t come across a Swedish knit pattern with more than two colours in one motif. I´m not sure about Norwegian knitting, but from what I´ve seen there are usually only two colours used in one mitten.
Actually I´ve started to obsess a bit about Norwegian patterns lately. I´d love to find some more literature about the knitting traditions in Norway. What books are there? (Annemor Sundbo´s books are already in my library)
The Britta mittens will probably be the last mittens that I make for a while. I realise that even I have to stop making mittens now when spring is officially here.
I just need to finish them properly first – for the time being there are no thumbs.
I know, I know. How hard can it be? Thumbs are really small and should take no time at all to knit.
But apparently it is very hard. For me.
My friend Eva-Lotta has told me that she doesn´t leave the knitting of the thumbs until last – and I think that is a clever idea. But for some dumb reason I didn´t follow her advice this time. So here they are, nearly done – but for the thumbs.
Hands up – how many readers of this blog think that the mittens will remain in this state until next winter arrives?