After my boss saw my blue-and-white selbuvotter mittens, she requested a pair of black and white stranded mittens to wear with her winter dress coat for the Ottawa weather. Her only stipulations were that she wanted the mittens to be more black than white, and she wanted it to be one of my own designs. This is the pattern I came up with for her, loosely inspired by the traditional patterns in the Norsk Folkemuseum and by my love of intricate, geometric design (thanks to yarnjungle for providing the link to the Norsk Folkemuseum; be sure to check out her beautiful Røros Mittens!).

Because she wanted the mittens to be mainly black, I have kept the black thread dominant even while knitting the white contrast designs. For other recipients I would probably make the contrast colour the dominant strand.

I will be making the free pattern available sometime soon after I finish the mittens. Happy New Year!