I often follow the blog by Arne and Carlos, the Norwegian superstar knitters and designers. In January of this year they featured an interesting how-to video of a traditional Norwegian-style hat with the X and O pattern using purl stitch, which is the inspiration behind this design. It never occurred to me that I could knit the background color with knit stitches and the motif with purl stitches! This combination of stitches in stranded-color knitting creates an interesting texture on the fabric, a “twist” to standard stranded-color knitting.

There is a matching pair of mitts (Mitts with a Twist) which use the same stitch pattern but are worked in a lighter weight yarn in the same color.