Norwegian Mittens and Gloves

Hands-on knitting history from Annemor Sundbø—now in paperback.

One day in 1983, Annemor Sundbø of Kristiansand, Norway, became the owner of a “shoddy mill,” a facility designed to process rags, scraps, and other discarded fabric into reusable material. However, Sundbø wasn't interested in running the mill; she was drawn instead to the store of thousands of mittens, gloves, and other knitted castaways, bundled into a warehouse on the mill's grounds, awaiting their turn. These well-used discards were in fact a treasure trove of traditional Norwegian patterning and technique, and the beginning of her life-long effort to document, preserve, and reconstruct classic Norwegian designs—dozens of which are assembled here in a timeless collection, now available for the first time in paperback.

Traditional Norwegian motifs, including animals, figures, flowers, hearts, palm and thumb patterns, and border designs, for mittens and glovesResources and instructions for understanding pattern repeats and successfully transferring motifs to hats, sweaters, and moreExplorations of the historical and cultural context of each motif accompanying every pattern