Mitten Mania

I am in love with this book--Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition.  The wonderful author of this book charted out old Norwegian mittens from a specific area in Norway.  The mittens are very distinctive, they have their own style.  The history behind the design, how the mittens were first created, and how they became produced on a larger scale is all detailed in this book.  Each design has a photo of the original mitten as well as the recreated one and includes the directions for making the mittens for yourself.

After I had gotten all nerdy by reading this book (I'm really into the knitting styles in the north Atlantic and surrounding areas--Scandinavia, Ireland, etc), I found out that Brad's family may be from this area, so it's a family thing at this point.  It's my husband's as well as my children's heritage that is represented in the designs of these mittens.

Of course I had to start knitting the mittens too!  We really can never have enough mittens in winter here in Minnesota, so why not?  Here's my first venture into Norwegian Mittendom:

Do they look soft?  They ARE.  I used super soft Alpaca Sport yarn by Blue Sky Alpacas in a dark charcoal gray color and a creamy-soft light pink.  I think they're gorgeous and they feel even better than they look!