More Books ... About Nordic and Latvian Mittens

Oh yes, I'm still interested in those Nordic Mittens.  Life in a Northern Town makes it a requirement for survival!     I am still hibernating at home for a snowy and wet winter weekend, studying Nordic Mittens with a couple of books from my local public library:

This book, Norwegian Mittens & Gloves by Annemor Sundbo, has a fascinating STORY to it.  Sometime in the 1980s, the author purchased a woolen rags factory where old woolens go to be recycled, either turned into new yarn, or shredded and carded into fluff for furniture and stuffing.  The factory had bags and bags of sweaters with beautiful patterns and designs.  She couldn't bring herself to throw them into the hopper to be destroyed / recycled, so she started setting certain sweaters aside -- the ones that seemed to tell a story, or showed animals ...  She is credited with documenting and saving the history of Nordic knitting patterns.  It's an interesting book to read simply because the story is so compelling.    She also began to study the pattern motifs, the constant links to nature with the animals and hunting, but also the myths and stories of the land, too.   There is one pattern paying homage to Odin's 2 ravens.  It does contain patterns for 25 classic designs.

I also picked up this book, Mittens from Around Norway   by Nina Granlund Saether.        This author does mention / credit the author of the first book above.  And they show multiple historical specimens of knitted Norwegian mittens, then giving the patterns for the modern-day remakes.  I'm still not quite understanding what to do with those thumbs, but I love many of these mittens and could totally see myself making some of them -- translated to a round knitting loom, of course, which shouldn't be hard to do, since most of them are knitted in the round.  I bookmarked so many pages in this book, that I think I'm going to have to purchase a copy.  ;-)

I am also waiting for an ILLed book on Latvian Mittens.  ;-)