Norske strikking

Since the time I saw my first pair of norwegian mittens, I have wanted to learn how to knit in such beautiful designs and they keep your hands warm! But, alas, I always figured it would be too hard for little ole' me who so loves to knit scarves! Knit mittens? And knit a fancy little design. Oh my! Plus, it requires a different technique right? Oh my! No way could I even desire such a skill, let alone learn to knit in the Norwegian tradition. (These are not my mittens by the way, just an example for you to gaze on.)

But, somehow I am learning. To my amazement, many people here do actually wear the Norwegian style mittens with all sorts of designs. To my surprise, many people know how to knit these designs and even read the patterns that look so complicated to me. Maybe its this great cloud of Norwegian witness who surround me in my knitting, or maybe its my feable lenten attempt not to watch tv. (I'm failing at this by the way, but I am watching less tv!).

The pattern book I am using is called "Selbuvotter: Biography of Knitting Tradition". These mittens originated in an area of western Norway, in a town called Selbu. So, these mittens are known as 'Selbu mittens' or Selbuvotter in Norwegian. Anyway, there are several different designs and ways to create the mitten or glove. I have chosen one that has a modified double star. (The traditional Selbu mitten is a star pattern.) Mine should look similar to the picture to the right when I am finished.

But of course mine will not be black and white. Traditionally these mittens are knit in neutral colors of black, white, brown, gray, and sometimes light blue. In fact, the only ones I have seen knit in any colors are knitted by people in the USA. Interesting...

So, in just two days, I have finished the cuff of my first mitten! Yeah!! I only had to start over twice, after messing up the pattern on my very first row. Then I did something wrong again the second time, don't remember what though. But, since then I have been progressing swimmingly!! Oh, look at that great work of crafty-ship.

So far I have just used the little cuff pattern, not so intimidating, not too terrible. But now I get to start on the hand portion, following the great big gigantic knitting diagram.

OK, I can do this. Its just a diagram. Just one row at a time. Let's hope this goes well. If not, I suppose I now know how to make fancy wristwarmers!

P.S. I was just cruising around on the internet looking at various Selbu mittens and found a web company based in California that sells what they say are authentic Selbu mittens that are still knitted in Selbu. They sell for $50-$70 for regular mittens and gloves. Not to mention the $100 love mittens which I think are so fun.
Now, mine will most likely not be as fabulouso as those knit by the Selbu women who have been knitting mittens forever. But, my goodnes, that's a lot of money! So, if you think you might receive a pair of these for Christmas (or if you ever receive a knitted gift from anyone), I am commanding you to be appreciative, even if you don't like them, darn it! Be kind to knitters everywhere! Look how much money we could make if we would only sell all our strange projects (oh, don't we wish!).