If there is one thing that Granny Martin tried to impress upon me as a youngster, it was that you should always have warm feet and warm hands. As I’ve learned since, you can cover the rest of yourself in as much wool as you like, but without those extremities taken care of, you’re still going to be a chilly, chilly body on a cold day.

I love mittens and handwarmers. I think they’re a great accent to wrap up your winter outfit. Sometimes it’s the only thing you can see! Having lived North of 60, I’m well aware of how to bury yourself in your jacket, hopefully with hood (and plenty of layers beneath). The only thing with whimsy is the hands.

My brother’s family is still in the Yellowknife area, so I like to make the kids fun things that they can wear over the long winter. For my niece, I love mittens. She loves being fashionable, so I figured she’d love a pair of traditional, lined, Latvian (stranded) mitts.

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Nope. The pattern really wasn’t working out. Sure, I got the lining right (yay!), but the pattern was getting lost in the colours of yarn. Time to take it back to the basics.