If you need new patterns for making warm, cozy mittens, Maja’s Swedish Mittens is a book you’ll want to consider adding to your library. This book includes more than 30 patterns for knitting mittens and gloves with Swedish design themes.
Does anyone you know need a warm new pair of mittens? Would you be interested in knitting those mittens — perhaps colorful patterned mittens, lace mittens, mittens with cables, plain mittens or striped mittens? And would you appreciate being able to choose from a variety of different mitten styles — gusseted, cuffed, ribbed, flip top and even fingerless gloves?
Would you also be interested in finding tips that will help you improve your mitten knitting skills?
If you’d be interested in owning a collection of 35 patterns for knitting mittens and fingerless gloves, there’s a brand new knitting pattern book you should know about. It’s called Maja’s Swedish Mittens: Over 30 Imaginative Patterns to Knit. Maja Karlsson is the author of this book.
What You Need to Know About This Knitting Pattern Book:
Publisher: Trafalgar Square Books
Copyright Date: I am reviewing the English translation of the book, which has a copyright date of 2019.
ISBN 13: 978-1570769399
ISBN 10: 1570769397
Book Format: This book is available as a hardcover book without dust jacket.
Number of Pages: 184
The Focus of This Book:
This book is exclusively dedicated to giving you patterns for knitting mittens and fingerless gloves made using traditional hand knitting techniques. Some of the colorwork patterns incorporate the author’s interpretation of traditional Swedish motifs. Many were inspired by elements of the Swedish landscape and Swedish life. The author has also drawn inspiration from Norse mythology or Norwegian design elements for a couple of these designs. There are also a couple that feature Japanese inspiration.
Mittens and fingerless gloves are the sole focus of the book; there are NO patterns for other types of projects like socks or hats or scarves.
Knitting Projects Included in This Book:
I counted…
- 29 pairs of mittens
- 5 pairs of fingerless gloves
- 1 pair of flip-top fingerless gloves / mittens
- 5 intermediate-level patterns
- 30 patterns rated for experienced knitters
All together, I counted a total of 35 projects in this book.
The Best Things About This Book
The mitten patterns are obviously the most compelling reason you’d want to consider buying this book. If you’re in need of mitten knitting patterns, you’ll have that need more than covered if you pick up a copy of Maja’s Swedish Mittens.
I think these projects are all worthwhile ones. They’d make beautiful gifts for the people on your gift list, and the look to me as if they’d be worth the investments in yarn and time. Each pair of these mittens has interesting little details that make it different from the others, and special.
The text of the book includes a brief introductory note about each of the mitten patterns, and these little tidbits are fascinating. Some of them describe the inspiration for the featured mitten design — often a traditional Scandinavian motif or design element.
The photography and styling in this book are enchanting. The photos give you glimpses of life in snow-covered Sweden — a world where mittens are not optional.
Another thing I love about this book is the recurring presence of antiques that enhance the project photos. Several museums and an antique shop are credited in the back of the book for providing locations or photography props.
My favorite example: The book includes a pair of mittens featuring a compass rose design — and these mittens are pictured along with antique compass rose illustrations that greatly enhance the presentation. I love everything about this design. There are many cruising sailors on my gift list, and I can see making bunches of these mitts in the future.
At one spot in the book, Maja reveals that she enjoys pressing flowers and plants. Pressed botanicals are the inspiration for at least one of the mitten designs included in the book, and they are also featured in some of the book’s photos.
In many other instances throughout the book, mittens are pictured along with their design inspiration. For example, there’s a pair of mittens featuring abstract spruce motifs. These are pictured in the book along with real sprigs of spruce. There’s a pair of mittens featuring lingonberry designs wrapping around the wrists; these are pictured along with actual lingonberries in the book.
As both a designer and knitter, I find this presentation quite interesting and inspiring. It’s obvious to me that a lot of creativity and effort went into the styling and the photography in this book. I’m positive that other knitters will be delighted by it, too.
Other Observations About This Book
The charts in this book appear to have been charmingly hand drawn rather than rendered on a computer. I find them appealing and easy to work from, despite the fact that they are not as precise in appearance as computer generated charts would be. This won’t make any difference in how your knitting turns out.
Most of the patterns in this book were only graded for an average-size woman’s hand. Most of them are sized at 4 inches wide when laid flat / 8 inches around the hand, but there are some that are smaller and larger than this. The smallest size I found was 3 1/4 inches when laid flat / 6 1/2 inches around the hand, and there are several others sized at 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 inches when laid flat / 7 or 7 1/2 inches around the hand. If you need to adjust the size, the author recommends going up or down in needle size and lengthening or shortening cuffs as necessary.
I believe many of these mitten designs would also be suitable for guys, assuming you choose masculine colors for knitting them.
Conclusion
I recommend this book to other knitting enthusiasts — in particular, to intermediate-level and experienced knitters. I think experienced knitters will get the best value from this book. Intermediate level knitters also have multiple lovely choices to work from — and of course, this book offers intermediate-level knitters plenty of useful material for furthering their skills and advancing. I’m thinking you won’t stay at intermediate level for long if you are determined to knit your way through the mitten patterns in this book.
Where to Buy This Book:
- Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.
- Click here to shop for this book at the publisher’s website.
Similar Knitting Books to Consider
- Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Knitted Mittens — These fun mitten patterns have soooo much personality! They feature cute animal designs, intriguing sentiments and gift-worthy themes (like rock ‘n roll, nautical motifs, etc). Many of the mittens are sized for adults, but if you’re interested in knitting mittens for kids, this book has some lovely child-sized mittens, too.
- Winter Knits From Scandinavia: Stranded Color Knitting Patterns — The majority of the patterns in this book are mitten patterns, but the book also includes patterns for some hats, socks and other accessories. The designs are stylish, classic and beautiful.
- The Big 3 Knitting Techniques Book: Knit Sweaters, Mittens, Hats and More — This is a wonderful book for knitters who want to knit mittens, hats, sweaters, vests and other types of projects. The book is both a stitch dictionary and pattern book. The main focus of the book is the knitting stitch patterns, which are organized into 3 groups featuring different knitting techniques. The book also includes basic patterns for knitting projects that can be customized using those stitch patterns. Overall, this is a wonderful little book. Definitely check it out if customized knitting projects, including mittens, are of interest to you.
This page was last updated on 8-18-2019.