for Laura Ricketts Designs 2014
LRD1413 Boat's Bow
The Sámi are Scandinavia's only U.N.-recognized indigenous people and are sometimes called the reindeer people. The Skolt Sámi are one of the subsets of the Sámi people. Their homeland is where Russia, Finland and Norway meet.
Besides small scale reindeer herding, the Skolt Sami traditionally practice sea fishing and netting river salmon. This Skolt Sámi traditional pattern, Boat's Bow, has the deep, sideways “V” like the prow of a boat. Boat's Bow is a characteristic Skolt Sámi mitten: it has an open, patterned cuff with multi-row slyngborden border. The pattern is worked every other stitch; it has a plain hand, peasant thumb with cupped tips and is finished with a braid and tassel. This pattern was copied from a mitten donated to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa. The author has also viewed a similar mitten from the Sør-Varanger area of Norway, part of the Skolt Sami's traditional homeland.
While teaching classes, I have found that the braid at the cuff and the tassel are often the hardest part of the patterns for knitters to tackle. I think it is just because it is a new, three-dimensional skill. There are a couple excellent online tutorials available, which I note in all my Sámi knitted mitten patterns. They include how to make a round, four-strand braid on-line photo tutorial:
One method of making a tassel:
Included link with this pattern is how to make the kierrekerros, also known as slyngborden:
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