Yes, I’m from The Netherlands. And no, I don’t wear wooden shoes and grow tulips. But I do like Delft pottery: the blue colour, the motifs. That’s what inspired me to design this pattern. The ‘royal’ part is featured by the orange colour; our royal family are descendants of the House of Orange (Huis van Oranje in Dutch).

Description
The mittens start with a Latvian braid. Fearful knitters could use a simple (garter stitch) ribbing.
The mitten body is done by stranded knitting, with a few three-colour sections. Stitches for the afterthought thumb are picked up later (hole-free – with modest photo tutorial) and then the thumb, with a small stranded part, is knit.

Required technical skills

• Knitting in the round with 2 colours per row, a few sections with 3 colours
• Knit & purl
• Latvian braid (or (garter stitch) ribbing)
• Picking up stitches (for the thumb)
• Increasing & decreasing
• Reading a colourwork chart
• Grafting (kitchener stitch)

Size
The mittens come in one size: women’s S/M. Should you like to knit a different size, please choose a different needle size and/or yarn type (which might influence the amount of yarn needed).

• Total length mitten: 24 cm
• Circumference: 19,5 cm
• Length from cast-on edge till thumb: 11 cm
• Length from thumb till top: 13 cm
• Thumb length: 6,5 cm

Yarn
Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift; 105 meters/115 yards per 25 gram
Colourways: 104 natural white (MC), 685 Delph (CC1), 478 amber (CC2)

Total yardage: MC: appr. 92 meters/100 yards (appr. 22 grams); appr. CC1: 84 meters/91 yards (appr. 20 grams); CC2: appr. 33 meters/36 yards (appr. 8 grams)

Needles
See also ‘Gauge’.
Your favourite needle for knitting small circumferences in the round:

• DPN’s or 80cm/32in circular needle, gauge size
• If necessary: DPN’s or 80cm/32in circular needle, above gauge size, for thumb

Notions
2 stitch markers
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Gauge
34 sts and 36 rows to 10cm/4in over colourwork pattern on gauge size needle.

Since every knitter has her or his own ‘hand of knitting’, no needle size is given. The only thing that matters is that your knitting matches gauge, otherwise your mittens won’t fit. Knit a swatch in the round if you want to be sure. Note that gauge in small circumferences will often be tighter than when knitting larger circumferences.

Just for information: sample mittens were knit on a 80cm-32in/2.25mm circular needle using the magic loop technique.

Happy knitting!