Julaften is/was a mystery Christmas mitten pattern by Skeindeer. I love her name. She describes herself as a “London-based Norwegian knit pattern designer” and I love her designs. I have purchased quite a few of them but had never made any of her patterns. She does a mystery mitten pattern every year at Christmas and I was determined to get Julaften done on time this year. I didn’t!
I tried to cast on the second week in December, which would have been plenty of time to finish them before Christmas but . . the instructions said to cast on with a stretchy method, such as The Old Norwegian Cast-on. I have never heard of that method but I watched a video and tried it . . about four times. I put it down and worked on something else. The next day I tried it again and still couldn’t get it. I decided I’d use a different stretchy cast on method . . something I’ve done before and knew I could do so I cast on but then, when I looked at other people’s pictures, it looked like those who used The Old Norwegian method had a higher strip of the main color yarn before the Latvian Braid started so I ripped it all back and just left it alone.
New Year’s Day, I told myself . . I am starting the new year off by tackling this Old Norwegian cast on and I’m going to win! And I did. The weird thing is I watched the video and got it the first time. I have no idea what I was doing wrong but I’ve learned something new . . how to do The Old Norwegian Cast-on!
I am always a bit apprehensive about showing colorwork projects before they’re blocked because they look so scraggly but I think it’s going to be pretty.
Ava says
I love that start. The pattern and colors are beautiful together.
Rebecca says
How funny that the fifth(!) time worked! This looks like a very cool design.
Liz says
Looks very pretty and the colors are close to the colors in the Latvian flag – carmine red and white – though I realize that you are using gray in this project.
Nelle Coursey says
I like this. I may have to find a video to watch!
Laura H says
Pretty!
Dot says
I learned it years ago, and know it as the Twisted German Cast-On. I love it, and use it for almost everything. There’s are also some interesting two-color cast-ons from Estonia and Latvia that I’ve tried a couple of times.