Summary: Double pointed needles, peasant thumb.



Techniques required: 2-color cast on, plaited edging (two colored decorative twisted edge), tassel, color stranding.



Materials: 2 oz red worsted weight wool; 2 oz white worsted-weight wool, 1/2 oz blue worsted-weight wool; contrasting waste yarn.



From the pattern description: Lapland, the land of the midnight sun, encompasses sections of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia that lie north of the Arctic circle. It is the traditional home of semi-nomadic reindeer herdsmen known as Saami. Winters are long, dark, and bitterly cold. The winter landscape is so closely tied to the Saamis' daily lives that their language contains more than twenty terms to describe snow.



Before knitting came to Lapland, Saami stuffed fur mittens and boots with warm, soft hay. With the arrival of knitting, they made colorful mittens to brighten the snowy landscape, adding cords and tassels for identification and for hanging.


Chart:  Mitten body chart p. 57, thumb chart p. 55.

The original description calls them “Lapps”, which is an outdated, derogatory term for the Saami people.