As usual, I needed a little bit of a relaxing project in between the more complicated cardigans and with Winter approaching I had just the thing in mind: mittens. My mum had brought me a really nice little book from Estonia in which Aino Praakli documented patterns from original mittens found in different regions in Estonia.
At first glance they resemble the Latvian mittens that I learned about at the workshop earlier this year but I while I was knitting, I actually saw the differences. The Estonian patterns are more abstract and geometrical and consist usually of only two or three contrasting colours. In any case, both are beautiful. And so fast to knit!
I knitted them on the smallest needles I had that I usually use for socks and I cast on 52 st (my hands are quite small), increasing to 60 st after the cuff. The thumb is attached afterwards with the most simple method, picking up 18 st around the thumb-hole - just remember to cast off the stitches on opposite sides of the two mittens, otherwise you end up with two left-handed or two right-handed ones... (and no, I'm *not* speaking out of experience).
Another little piece of advice would be to join the rounds of the pattern at what will be the sides of the mittens (I don't know how to describe it better but I mean the place which is not the palm or the back of your hand when you imagine the finished mitten). I didn't pay attention on the first mitten and now I have the ugly jog on the back of the mitten where it is much more visible - probably only to the trained knitters' eyes but anyways.
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