“I KNITTED A PAIR OF MITTENS EACH WEEK”
Edith Saastamoinen-Torvi took up the challenge of knitting a pair of mittens a week for last Christmas.
Edith Saastamoinen-Torvi challenged herself to knit traditional Finnish mittens for all her loved ones last year.
It began when Edith lost one of her own mittens earlier in the year, a pair of regional Finnish ones she had knitted. "Whey were Kainuu flower mittens, which is where I live,” says Edith. “I thought about knitting a replacement , but started knitting mittens for everyone else instead.”
Edith did the maths and worked out that if she knitted a pair each week, she would have enough to gift to everyone by Christmas – with two weeks to spare!
“I chose patterns that spoke to me,” she says. “I love Finnish nature and instinctively chose nature-related ones.”
The city of Kainuu, Edith’s current home, is surrounded by vast and beautiful wilderness – wild moose and wolf sightings are a regular occurrence. “It is very common to see wildlife in our city,” says Edith. “We see rabbits, vipers, goats and lynxes that are drawn close by prey.”
With her knitting time calculated and her inspiration well-sourced, Edith began working out who her mittens would be for. In the end, everyone from her husband to two of her cousins received a pair of heirloom mitts – she even surprised three of her close friends.
“I knitted in the evenings, after the kids had gone to bed, and made 16 pairs in total,” she says. “During the process, my tension got so much better. I got faster at knitting and found the courage to modify patterns to suit my taste and even started designing.”
Scouring the internet, Edith searched for patterns she could use. “I followed designs that I found on Ravelry,” she says. “The fox, white sparrow, and bird mittens were all from Ravelry. I adapted the dark red leaf ones from another pattern I found online, and designed the blueberry bush mittens myself, for my best friend.”
Edith mostly used a yarn called Novita 7 Brothers to create all her mittens, and has been using the same yarn to try her hand at dyeing, too! “I learned to dye with my mum last autumn,” she says. “We used natural ingredients, like webcap, turmeric and coffee, on a base of Novita 7 Brothers or Teddy, and other pure wool yarns.”
In total, Edith and her mum dyed a whopping 3kg of yarn. “We might have gotten a little carried away!” says Edith.
Her mother went on to dye another 3kg to surprise Edith with as a Christmas present. “I was thinking of making everyone colourful socks next year,” says Edith. “I’ve already started a pair using the yarns my mum gave me. My head is full of ideas on how to use them – they’re delicious colours!”