Safe Return

Revisiting another back-issue project in "Piecework" magazine. This time it's Safe Return mittens, a project by Robin Hansen. This is from the (unavailable) Sept/Oct 1997 issue and is another one of those that I've studied and thought about for years! These mittens use 6 different shades of blue and gray yarn. [I see there is a kit at Nordic Fiber Arts.]

Now the last thing I need here in GA is a pair of thick wool mittens. No wait a minute. Let me rephrase that. The last thing I need here in GA is a third pair of thick wool mittens! Why then am I so intrigued with the pattern?! Two words: repeating pattern.

Today (10 years later!) I decided to get the book at the library (Juvenile fiction), an excerpt of which precedes the pattern. The jacket says that the story was inspired by a true incident in 1824 on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea which the author, Catherine Dexter, discovered while reading a book of knitting patterns [The Swedish Mitten Book: Traditional Patterns from Gotland, by Inger and Ingrid Gotfridsson.]

It's a lovely story and takes place just before Christmas. I think this will become one of those small volumes that I re-read every year at Christmas. Now I just need a 12-year-old girl to share it with. It just occurs to me that my girl was 12 in 1997 - but I wasn't knitting and I never followed up on the book. Sigh.

Once again my timing is way off.