Scandinavian Morning

A tremendous hiccup in our moving plans has forced us into a bit of a nomadic existence this month. With all of our belongings now in storage and my husband and I, as well as our two cats, bunked up at my mother's condo it is hard to feel settled or productive, although we are getting a tremendous amount of reading done.

My mother is the one who taught me to sew. She is also the patient soul who taught me to knit a half dozen times before the lesson took. She has a little collection of vintage pattern books that make for great reading and I thought I would share a few of the patterns from one of my favorites, Scandinavian Snow Sets.

 First published in the late 1940's, this book is full of patterns for mittens and hats all covered in the beautiful stars, snowflakes, diamonds, and floral motifs of traditional Scandinavian design. Mema and I often get together and knit on chilly winter evenings and I almost always find myself drifting through the pages of this book imagining my hands tucked warmly and securely inside these beautiful mittens. I must admit that I've never actually knit anything from this book but that is more from lack of time than interest. My winter knitting time is usually taken up entirely with warm socks and hats knit quickly to see me through the season. I am also currently devouring a copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann's A Knitter's Almanac in which she advocates knitting up mittens and hats in the warmer months of the year so that one can enjoy the process and be patient with the design rather than trying to take pleasure in knitting when speed and time are of the essence in the deep cold of winter days.

We had our first snowfall in Chicago last week so the opportunity for the leisurely knitting of mittens may already be behind me but the necessity of mittens is fast approaching, perhaps one of these designs will make it onto my needles this year...

Snowflake Mittens
Click here for PDF

Peasant Boarder Mittens
PDF

One of my favorites. I love the dark tips and cuffs on these.
Swedish Modern Mittens
PDF

These sweet and delicately knit thumbless baby mittens would make fantastic holiday gifts. I love when small things are knit with appropriately fine yarn and needles. It just keeps everything so perfectly in scale!

Baby Mittens (Fawn and Rose Patterns)

PDF

Hope you enjoy these amazing patterns! And if you cast one on, be sure to take a photo and tag it #lakesideneedleworks on Instagram! I would love to see these designs on some warm hands this winter! Happy knitting all!