Knitting Selbu Norwegian mittens for Norway House exhibit

In the summer of 2021, through a group of neighborhood knitters I know, I was asked if I wanted to knit a Norwegian (Selbu) mitten for an exhibit along with others from the group. The mitten patterns came from the book "Mittens from Around Norway" by Nina Granlund Saether and would be part of an exhibit at Norway House later that year.. Scandinavian knitting was one of the styles that I had not attempted much in my knitting career. I had knit mittens from "The Swedish Mitten Book" by I. and I. Gottfridsson and also from Lizbeth Upitis' "Latvian Mittens." Now, I really wanted to try Norwegian mittens, a style on my bucket list of knitting styles, so I signed on to the project. I chose a typical black and white Selbu pattern from the book.

A note about Norway House, the organization creating and planning the exhibit. It is a Minnesota business and cultural organization that encourages and supports connections between Norway and the U.S. This cultural organization exists because about 16.5 of Minnesota's population claims Norwegian ancestry (2009 data, Wikipedia) The exhibit of the mittens from Saether's book, which would all be knit by local knitters, was planned for sometime in 2021, or 2022, as it turned out.

I received the pattern and wool in May, 2021 with a deadline of August. The wool, Rauma Finullgarn, is produced in northern Norway.

Norwegian Wool

 

The pattern I knit is called "Selbu Mittens with a Flower Border," page 132 of the book. It calls for a gauge of 7 sts to the inch and I used size 2 dp (U.S.) needles to get that gauge. After I received the pattern and the yarn, I got busy right away, not knowing how long these mittens would take.

A Glitch in Chart 1

There's nothing that throws a knitter more than a mistake in the pattern. "Blind knitters," an Elizabeth Zimmerman expression, expect to follow the pattern without any problems. This pattern begins with the cuff, which is folded under and stitched down to create a double layer of warmth at the wrist. However, when I got to the first pattern row on Chart 1 of this pattern, I was short one stitch. After tearing back and reknitting rows, I had to consider a mistake in the pattern, so I counted the repeats and the stitches in the chart. I even asked a fellow knitter to check the pattern. Sure enough, a 4-stitch pattern that repeats 18 times would add up to 72 stitches. However, there are only 71 stitches on Chart 1, so I would have to adjust to make the flower pattern work. Remember to question the pattern, trusting knitters!

After this little glitch, the rest of the pattern is accurate and the knitting progressed easily albeit slowly as I had to continue to check the pattern. After finishing the right-handed mitten, the pattern says to make a "mirror image" for the left mitten. At first, that might seem to be a confusing instruction, but it just means read the pattern from left to right (instead of right to left, as is normal).

Just the thumbs left!

I finished the hands of both mittens and only had to cast on for the thumb of each and complete those patterns at the same time. There is a contrasting pattern on the palm side of the mitten. The mittens were done well before the August deadline, which was later extended to November as the exhibit was moved to the winter with an opening date of January 22nd, 2022.

Strikkekos

The website for Norway House refers to this Norwegian mitten exhibit using the Norwegian term "strikkekos." This translates to "the feeling of coziness and conviviality that comes with contented knitting. Also, the act itself." What a great word to summarize the contentment that knitters feel when working on a project. German has a term "strickfreude", but I think "strikkekos" sums up my experience knitting these lovely mittens just perfectly.