Mittens, Mittens
A few years ago, we were on a trip to Norway, it was around Christmas time and for the first time I saw people wearing these gorgeous sweaters and hand knitted mittens with different patterns, loose, and it felt like everyone was wearing them – in the city, along the pathways, in the mountains. I remember that back then, it didn’t even crossed my mind that I could knit something like that, it seemed like actual rocket science to me.
I told myself, ok, I will have to learn how to knit and I made the big mistake that probably many people in my position make – I started learning to knit a scarf… easy and extremely boring. I gave up after two days. After some time I started my scarf again and again I gave up… and that was how my adventure with knitting ended back then.
Time passed and we moved to Norway. The first winter I was again looking with envy at everyone in their knitwear and kept repeating to myself “I will learn how to knit” and I started painting with watercolors. In the meantime, I was learning to knit by osmosis, watching tutorials and telling myself “oh, this is easy, I can do it”. I found a website with different patterns and picked selbu mittens – it’s not a huge project, it only has one thumb, it has a pattern, it’s for winter, and I told myself: I am ready! I’m starting to knit.
Every Friday we go grocery shopping at the nearby shopping center and there is a hobby shop there, where I always find a reason to drop by. Besides art supplies, they also sell yarn there (actually, yarn is everywhere here, but more on that another time). So, after circling the shelves with paints and brushes, I somehow overflowed into the yarns and bought two skeins of thick wool yarn and knitting needles. Just enough for a pair of mittens.
Alafosslopi. Up until then, I had only read about it. Thick, rustic, scratchy. I remember the colors – green and petroleum blue. I told myself that this right here is my yarn, I will be warm, they will be fluffy and most importantly, there are as many colors as you want.
I started knitting my mittens – extra self-confident, no gauge swatching, no thinking about mistakes.
Of course, later I learned that selbu mittens are knit with much thinner yarn than my Alafosslopi, but who looks at such things.
Wow! I was going to knit mittens!
After which, naturally, they turned out a bit oversized and a bit different in length, but they were mine. Oh, how proud I was 🙂
On my first and last time wearing them, I lost them… I walked around, searched for them and didn’t find them anywhere.
I hope whoever found them enjoys them and wears them with pleasure.
After these mittens, I got pure frustrated with myself and said – this is easy, I can knit myself another pair, and tailored to my size. That’s how my adventure started.
As usually happens with me, I didn’t just start, I literally couldn’t stop. I knit mittens for everyone, improvised with colors and patterns, but not with the yarn. I didn’t repeat my attempt with the Selbu mittens, I found another type that takes me back to my childhood, and with this fluffy and living yarn, which felts just a little bit with every wash, until eventually my mittens become like a real armor against rain and wind. They bring me endless joy.
When I started my journey in knitting, I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had never held needles before, I had never felt real, living wool against my skin until then. My first encounter with this yarn literally grounded me – it taught me patience, taught me that even though it looks quite rough, it is actually very gentle and I have to be careful, not to rush, and that wool actually forgives a lot of mistakes.
But the most important thing it taught me was to breathe and enjoy the process.
P.S. My journey continues, I learned a lot over these short two years, I read, I tried, I knit and little by little I will tell you everything I know and why wool is forever.
