These were the official mittens of NaKniMitMo 2010.

I had been toying around with the idea of a big, highly-textured pair of mittens in a delicious red for a while -- something with a big, hearty cuff, a smattering of floral-inspired colourwork on said cuff and big, pure uninterrupted bits of screaming colour with plenty of purling for texture and interest. I always walk around with this (probably totally incorrect, but still, to me it makes sense) version of Folk Art in my head and sometimes this comes out in my work. These mittens are one of my attempts to create my own body of Folk Art from a country that may or may not have ever existed (but may or may not be located somewhere in central Europe. Possibly.)

They’re named “Anna’s Mittens” after my friend Anna, who is actually European, unlike the mittens. They were her Christmas present this year.