After much mumbling – I mean was it teasing or hinting – or just plain deferment? I am now ready to show the Latvian Mittens. These were made from a kit I purchased on our trip last year and can be truly called the one true souvenir purchase.
The kit came with yarn and pattern, and assumes you have knit mittens before. The pattern says to use 1.5mm needles and although I got gauge with this size it was so uncomfortable to knit with them that I went up a size. Despite that these mittens only just fit me and I don’t have big hands. I do not know what other people do as the pattern comes in just one size. I added extra rows to the cuff as I felt it was not long enough, otherwise overall the mittens do fit.
This was not a pleasant knit. You are knitting a colourwork pattern on small needles at a type gauge which requires concentration but also I could not work on them for too long at anyone time as my hands would start to hurt. I would say to myself to finish these by the end of the month I need to work x rows per day – and then didn’t. In the end I told myself I had to work five rows a day to get them finished. It didn’t help that these are mittens that won’t be worn much so there was no incentive to get them finished apart from the finish itself.
I started them on 11 November 2025 and finished all the knitting on 5 February 2026 but spent just 43 days actually working on them.
Would I do this again? As a souvenir I would. But I would definitely think more about the process and make changes for fit rather than trust the pattern.
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