I’ve been waiting to write about this project for around 7 weeks. I made these Norwegian mittens for my best friend and we swapped presents yesterday so I can finally write about them!
The pattern
I found the Norwegian Totoro Mittens pattern on Ravelry. It’s free and very easy to follow.
How do you knit a mitten thumb?
I have to admit, I was dreading knitting the thumb but it was actually really simple. I did a bit of Googling and found this tutorial on A Kitten Knits.
In a nut shell, you knit the stitches that will become the thumb in a different colour yarn and carry on knitting in the round. At the end, you pick up the stitches between the coloured yarn onto your needles and start knitting the thumb. Easy peasy.
I feel really proud of these mittens. Until this point, I’ve dedicated more time to crochet and my most adventurous knitted item has been a pair of socks. But I like to throw myself in at the deep end and give things a go and I’m glad I did because it’s given me the confidence to finally start a knitted jumper!
Pattern Alterations
The only alteration I made to this pattern was removing pattern detail from the thumb and knitting it in solid white.
Things I’ll do differently next time
As these mittens were mostly white on the back I made them with 100% acrylic yarn so they could withstand alot of washing. But next time I think I’d make them from a wool blend for a little more stretchability and softness.
Knit on bamboo needles. I used Pony aluminium dpns but a combination of that and acrylic yarn was a little squeaky to knit with at times. I’m hoping to replace all my aluminium needles with bamboo ones at some point.
Notes and tips
- Yarn: Sirdar Chunky in grey and white
- Needles: Pony aluminium 4mm double pointed needles (dpn)
- Mistakes show up very easily on this pattern so mark off each of row with a highlighter as you knit it.
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