Mittens are finally embellished.....

 


I'm not a stitcher - never did any embroidery growing up and only recently got into Sashiko, a decorative Japanese stitching. But I loved the look of it on all the amazing handknit mittens and gloves at the Historical Museum in Oslo.

So after finishing this first pair of nalbound (nalbinded?) mittens using some handspun Icelandic roving my sisters gave me as a souvenir of our our second trip to Iceland, I decided to work my way thru a

the  Pocket Guide to Embroidery Stitches and learn some basics while embellishing the mittens with these vibrant silk floss threads a sister dyed up using some natural dyes I brought back from Morocco.

So here is the completed first pair. The stitching is wonky and each mitten is a different color of Icelandic Fleece because that's what I had. But I LOVE these mittens anyway. Probably because they are unique and they represent such great memories I have of trips to Iceland with my sisters and to Morocco with my friends. And, of course, they represent me working thru the nalbinding on my own and figuring out a pattern so that kind of success always feels good too!

After nalbinding them, I fulled them a bit before doing the embroidery.  They fit perfectly and are so incredibly warm.

I can't wait for winter weather to wear them now!

Now I'm off to make a child's pair in some handspun Icelandic that was shorn from one of my niece's first sheep. Cicely's fleece was pure white, but I threw a couple balls of the yarn I spun into logwood at the last sibling dye day, so this next pair will be purple! 

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