This mitt design comes from walking under the Swedish Whitebeam trees that line the old marketplace in my village- their distinctive lobed leaves and berries are knitted into the mitts.

Resilient Swedish Whitebeams are a familiar sight throughout lowland Scotland, planted to green up streets, and then spread into the wider countryside by thrushes that love their generous crops of fat, red berries. There’s an intriguing story that the oldest Swedish Whitebeams, growing in remote locations in Scotland, were sown by thrushes migrating south for the winter with a bellyful of Scandinavian berries, blurring the boundary between native and introduced wildlife.

A column of berry bobbles and a lobed whitebeam leaf travel the length of the back of the mitt, framed by curving cables.

The Whitebeam Mitts are knit at a tighter tension in an all-over rib, to give cosy, stretchy, neatly fitting mitts that accommodate a range of hand sizes.

ONE SIZE

Finished circumference: 18 cm / 7 in, stretches to 22 cm / 8.5 in
Finished length: 19 cm / 7.5 in

Designed to be worn with 0–4 cm / 0–1.5 in negative ease

YARNS

Balmerino DK, 100% ‘Scottish Merino’, 172 m / 186 yds per 50g - 1 ball

Cream sample: White Campion

OR Di Gilipin Bell Wether, 100% ‘Scottish Merino’, 172 m / 186 yds per 50g - 1 ball

Green sample: Samphire Martini
Red sample: Maple
Grey sample: Sea Haze

OR in DK weight yarn which knits to the specified gauge and has good stitch definition.

APPROXIMATE YARDAGE REQUIRED

172 m / 186 yds

TECHNIQUES

Knitting in the round, reading charts, cables