Do you enjoy knitting uniquely customizable projects for yourself or your loved ones? Do you ever knit gifts for others or make charity knitting projects? Would you enjoy owning a beautiful book filled with gift ideas suitable for giving to just about every type of personality you could think of — whether you know fashionistas, rockers, fishermen, newlyweds, wise owlish types, cat lovers, dog lovers, or just about any other type of animal lover? If so, Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Knitted Mittens: 45 Distinctive Scandinavian Knitting Patterns is a book you’re going to want to take a look at.
When it comes to gift-giving, mittens make ideal knitting projects. They’re small, portable and relatively quick to knit. They can also become mini works of art if you knit them using artistic mitten patterns — which is exactly what you get in this book.
What You Need to Know About This Knitting Pattern Book:
Author: Jorid Linvik
Publisher: Trafalgar Square Books
Copyright Date: This is the English language version of the book which has a copyright date of 2016.
ISBN 13: 978-1-57076-786-9
Book Format: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 216; you did notice the words “Big Book” in the title, right? They aren’t kidding; this really is a large and substantial book.
The Focus of This Book:
This book is all about giving you fun, creative and beautiful mitten patterns — 45 patterns in all. That’s not all you get; the author has also included blank charts you can use for designing your own custom knitted mitten patterns.
You also get additional color knitting charts. These include an alphabet for customizing your mittens with initials, names, logos or slogans plus a bunch of other pattern motifs — bugs, butterflies, flowers, cherries, shamrocks, bunnies, a tractor and more.
Mitten Knitting Patterns Included in This Book:
The book is divided into sections, with each section featuring a different theme or type of motif.
Knitted Mittens Featuring Cuddly Animals
This section of the book is devoted to mittens patterns featuring cuddly pets.
For dog lovers, there are two different dog-themed mitten patterns. One design features a poodle. The other design features a lovable-looking dog; I’m not sure exactly what kind of dog it is — perhaps a terrier of some sort? Maybe it’s a mutt.
There are also two different designs for cat mittens. One of the designs features both a cat and a mouse, plus Scandinavian snowflake motifs. It includes space in the design to personalize each mitten with a name. The other design features cute cats, paw prints and a small fishbone motif.
This section of the book also includes a knitting pattern for child-sized rabbit mittens.
Knitted Mittens Featuring Bird Motifs
Lovable bird motifs adorn bunches of different mittens presented in this book. There are flying birds, penguins, owls and a ptarmigan design. There’s also a child’s mitten pattern featuring a little bird and heart motif.
Felted Mittens
Three of the four felted mittens presented in this book are not pictorial designs. One of them is a Fair Isle stripe pattern. Another is an allover repeating diamond motif with a prominent stripe design on the cuff. Another is a simple allover Fair Isle dotted motif with a fancy Fair Isle stripe design at the cuff.
The fourth pair of felted mittens is a pictorial white tiger design.
Knitted Mittens Featuring Symbols
My husband’s favorite mittens from the book are found in this section. He put in a request for a pair of the knot mittens, which feature an “endless knot” style Celtic knot symbol. Other designs in this section include a Christmas design featuring hearts and pine tree motifs, a Scandinavian style ice crystal motif, a scrollwork design and a winged heart design.
Knitted Mittens From the Wilderness
Woodland critters adorn the mitten designs found in this section of the book. There are two styles of fox mittens; one is for adults, and the other is for children. Other children’s mittens include a deer design and little squirrel design. There’s an adorable coordinating squirrel design for adults that features a mama squirrel and baby squirrel. Other mitten designs in this section include a pair of moose mittens, a salamander design, a frog design and a polar bear design.
Domestic Animals
The mitten designs for adults include horses, sheep, reindeer and cows. The children’s designs feature calf motifs and lamb motifs.
Motifs With Personal Meaning
This section of the book includes some complex and interesting design work. For example, there’s a pair of mittens featuring the written-out word “Rock”, plus it has a winged guitar motif and bunches of skulls. A piano keyboard graces the cuff of the mittens. Another intriguing design is called “Bridal Pair Mittens”; this pattern features scrollwork designs, pairs of lovebirds plus pairs of people, plus some other interesting pattern work. This section also features angel mittens, fisherman’s mittens, “Ship Ahoy!” mittens with Scandinavian style compass rose motifs, and “Tiddely Pom” Norwegian style mittens.
Exotic Mittens
The mitten knitting patterns presented in this chapter all feature exotic animal motifs. There are adult sized mittens featuring zebras, giraffes and elephants. There are two children’s designs; one is a tiger cub design in two sizes that can fit babies or older children. The other is a baby elephant design for children 5-7 years old.
Design Your Own Knitted Mittens
This section of the book features blank mitten knitting charts for adult and children’s sized mittens. This is also where you’ll find charted pattern motifs for the alphabet and other designs, plus a space for you to write your own notes.
The Best Things About This Book
The design work in this book is unique, delightful, interesting and compelling.
If you were to knit and wear any of these mittens, you’d be likely to find people stealing admiring glances at your hands whenever you wear them out in public. These mittens are also likely to be conversation starters; they’re unusual enough to make a fashion statement, and they’d be a fun way to dress up your outerwear. This is particularly true if your winter coats and jackets are nondescript, utilitarian pieces, but these mittens will also complement the trendiest winter wraps and coats in your wardrobe as well.
The photographs in this book are clear, helpful and straightforward.
Most of the mittens are pictured on a plain white ground with absolutely nothing to distract from them.
Some of the mittens are also pictured on people, or on creative backgrounds that give you interesting insights about the projects. For example, the giraffe mittens are pictured on a lady who is wearing them with a chic sweater and pair of slacks; this shot allows you to see how these mittens complement current clothing designs, and how they fit on a person’s hand. Several pairs of the felted mittens are pictured together hanging on a clothes line, so you can see how the designs compare against each other.
You can judge this book by its cover. The front cover design is gorgeous, honest and totally straightforward, with nothing misleading about it. The cover art gives you a look at 10 of the 45 patterns that are included in the book. The back cover shows you three additional designs.
The book is attractive and appealing overall. It is laid out logically. The fonts used are clear and readable; they’re also classic in appearance, and will not soon be outdated.
The design of this book is as timeless as it could possibly be. Fast forward 10+ years and I’m guessing this book and all its projects will still look completely current; this characteristic makes it an outstanding investment for your knitting library.
The book also looks durable; it’s a hardcover that looks as if it will stand up well to heavy use. The paper the book is printed on is substantial and high quality.
I haven’t yet tested any of the patterns in this book; however, I’ve read through the instructions several times, and would feel confident to begin working on any of the projects. The designs are all charted out, making the instructions clear and intuitive to work from. The charts are visually appealing and laid out well, with plenty of white space.
Conclusion
This is a truly beautiful book, and I’m delighted to recommend it to other knitting enthusiasts.
Where to Buy This Book:
Find More Knitting Books by This Author
Jorid Linvik is a prolific knitting pattern designer, and she has written a couple of other excellent pattern books. Check ’em out:
- Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Knitted Socks
- Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Christmas Knits: Knitting Patterns for the Holidays
Find More Knitting Books and Related Resources
If you enjoy color knitting, you may wish to check out Fair Isle Knitting by Carina Olsson and Knit Yourself In, both of which include fantastic color knitting patterns. If you have a different kind of knitting project in mind, you’re invited to peruse our main directory of new knitting books.
If you enjoy crocheting, you’ll want to check out this list of brand new crochet pattern books at knittingcrochetcrafts.com.
You might also enjoy this page of winter craft patterns.
Posted By: Amy Solovay
This page was last updated on 7-29-2023.