The Kaamos mittens pattern is now complete!
While the
October sun was fading into November, I was knitting my pair of Kaamos mittens.
On my daily walks I was looking at the sun and how it stayed lower and lower
near the horizon. We are heading for light but the days are still very short
and now they have also got colder. It was -5°C (23F) and windy today, so the
weather did not feel mild any more. January and February are usually very cold
months up here and keeping the cold away is best done by wearing wool, often
even layering wool.
Sometimes the design process from the beginning to the
end is pure joy, you see in your mind's eye the final product and then you just
knit it, making only minor adjustments here and there. When you arrive at a
problem, the solution is there waiting for you to pick it up. It felt like that
when knitting these mittens, but there was some preliminary thought and trial
behind the design.
Raanu's, the woven woollen coverlets of the north have
been on my mind many times and I have often thought about knitting the
patterns. If one does striping in stockinette, that is easy, but when one knits
the stripes with two colors and then tries to mount the stripes into stockinette
background, there is trouble: as the tension of the stranded part is a bit
tighter than the surrounding stockinette.
I have tried to solve this problem by
changing needle size but the fabric never felt stable. And this is the point
where I always laid aside my idea of knitting raanu-patterns. I am not sure why
it never occurred to me before that there is quite a simple solution to this,
but only did I discover it this fall.
The discovery led to three fantastic results. First of
all I could keep the tension even and the fabric would be balanced. Then, I
would get a toasty and warm pair of mittens. And as a bonus, the fabric would
be perfect canvas for embroidery.
Can you guess? The solution is quite simple, really.
If the stripes were knitted with patterning, that is if they were stranded,
then the background should also be stranded, as in Fair Isle knitting (not as
is twined knitting, although one could do that if one would like to). I love the
result; even, thick, warm, firm.
The cuffs are long and wrist hugging and the mittens
have thumb gussets so they are pleasing to wear. I used Finnwool and Estonian
wool Evilla to knit my pairs but good alternatives would be Kauni and Shetland
style fingering weight wools.
To stay loyal to my Finnish roots, the embroidery
pattern is an interpretation of the sun that appears in Finnish embroidered
woollen coverlets. Sometimes one looks for inspiration too far away, as it can
be quite close, and one just has to see it.
I think that these might be the best mittens I have
ever made.
The pattern is now available in my Ravelry pattern
store, just click the link on the right.
Wool with you,
Lene
I am so happy to see these mittens! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteLovely mittens! Stranding with a single color -- how toasty.
ReplyDeleteBeutiful mittens!
ReplyDeleteVery beautiful mittens! And, yes, you´re quite right: of course the background should be stranded. It´s such a simple solution, yet I haven´t thought of it myself, but I hav ehae the same problem. Thank you for sharing the idea!
ReplyDeleteThe mittens are beautiful and should keep your hands toasty warm.
ReplyDeleteGita
These mittens are so pretty! I am heading over to your Ravelry store right now to buy them. Thanks for making them available.
ReplyDeleteJust beautiful. I love your sun on the mittens. Very much "less is more". Nice!
ReplyDeleteYou've done a wonderful job with these mittens, they're gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful. Thank you so much for writing up the pattern.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLoveley mittens, I really like the embrodery!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed with your solution to uneven fabric. It's a great idea and makes the mittens look fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThey are truly beautiful! And what an ingenious solution!
ReplyDeleteJust lovely...truly beautiful mittens...art for your hands! Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! The pattern is in my Ravelry library. :) I am looking forward to knitting a pair. I really like the sun design too.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful mittens. I love how you incorporated the sun and solved the striping dilemma. Very striking.
ReplyDeleteLene, can you show a picture of the inside, please?
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Ellen in Connecticut (USA)
Lovely mittens.
ReplyDeleteThey are lovely and what an innovative solution to your problem. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteSo so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures of your inspiration for these mittens. I think the idea of stranding the plain parts of the mittens also is just brilliant! I have also been bothered by the transition from plain to stranded knitting and this is a very practical, simple and elegant solution. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm here I would like to say that I really enjoyed your descriptions of life where you live last month. I live in a cold, dark climate also (I live in Juneau, in Southeast Alaska) and I loved reading about the differences and similarities in our lifestyles.
Thanks for writing!
Just trying to understand what you did: Is the body stranded by using 2 different strands of the same color?
ReplyDeleteThe mittens look great.
margieinmaryland
Thanks for the very interesting pattern. I have a lot of mitten goals in 2012. I hope I can reach them and try this pattern.
ReplyDeletePieni kommentti suomeksi :-) Todella kauniit ja ajatuksella toteutetut lapaset! Pidän tavasta, jolla olet sukeltanut suomalaiseen käsityöperinteeseen ja tehnyt siitä oman tulkintasi.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job, Lene, with these mittens!
ReplyDeleteI realize I like these especially because they remind me of a pair of boiled wool mittens I had many years ago -- I wore them everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAivan ihanat lapaset Lene!
ReplyDeleteThese truly are beautiful mittens. I hope one day to become skilled enough to be able to try them!
ReplyDeleteAnd i wanted also to thank you for sharing the image of the Finnish embroidery. I would love to see it in person! It is just absolutely beautiful and i can easily see why you would be inspired by it.