BRELLA’S NORWEGIAN TOTORO MITTENS with dust bunnies! The charts and instructions provided here were originally developed from the Generic Norwegian Mitten Chart pattern provided for free by HelloYarn.com. (You can also find it as a free ravelry download.) Their templates are a great jumping off point for creating your own mitten designs. You can also use these charts to create designs on other surfaces, such as hats and scarfs. Whatever the case, please don’t charge anyone money for these charts or for whatever you might make out of them. The rights to these images belong to Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli, and should not be used for personal profit.
marjotse’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
Totoros are the shy forest spirits portrayed in Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese animated film My Neighbor Totoro. The big Totoro in this movie has an umbrella, and he particularly likes the sound that rain makes against it. The middle and little Totoros imitate the big one by carrying leaf-umbrellas. Meanwhile, tiny animated dust bunnies (or soot sprites) like to colonize dark corners, swirling out of them en masse when disturbed. I wanted to capture these elements on mittens, which in the Norwegian tradition are wonderful surfaces for intricate stranded knitting designs. If you are comfortable with combining mitten-knitting (in the round) with stranded knitting, then this pattern should pose no problem. brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
tiuku’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
brella is a Studio Ghibli otaku (fan) who knits and teaches at an alternative school in Toronto, Canada.
last updated Jul 2014 p. 1 of 6
GAUGE / MEASUREMENTS:
a gauge of 24 sts = 24 rows = 4" in stranded knitting (tighter than stockinette) will result in a mitten that is 8" in circumference and ~8.5" long, not including the cuff. Adjust needle size and/or yarn weight to achieve larger or smaller mittens.
RECOMMENDED YARNS:
any mid-weight yarns in a warm and elastic fibre such as wool. I used something like dk/worsted weight wool and alpaca to achieve the above gauge.
RECOMMENDED NEEDLES:
at least four 3.5mm dpns (24" or longer circular needles for magic loop knitting) or whatever size yields the desired gauge.
Check out the sizes, yarns, yardage and needles used by different people who have knit these mittens by visiting the Norwegian Totoro Mittens projects page on ravelry.com
INSTRUCTIONS 1. CO 48 sts in CC using your method of preference. (I used a longtail cast on). 2. Switch to MC. (You may wish to break the CC and rejoin it later as needed, or plan to carry it unbroken up the inside of the cuff). Join to knit in the round and k2, p2 until end of row. 3. If desired, check to make sure there was no twist when joining to knit in the round and mark beginning of round with stitch marker. Continue in 2x2 rib in MC as set (k2, p2) until desired length of cuff has been reached. (I went for 2".) 4. Knit 1 round plain in MC. 5. Knit row 1 of Chart 1 and row 1 of the appropriate Chart 2, switching between MC and CC as indicated. Repeat for rows 2, 3, and so on until row 18, or wherever you think the thumb should be. 6. For the stitches in Chart 2 indicating the thumb join, break both MC and CC, leaving nicely long tails for closing any holes and weaving in ends later. Knit the join in contrasting waste yarn. (Note: in the next row at the sts directly above the thumb join, you might want to
let keep one long 9-st float of CC rather than strand it in. When you go back and pick up the sts there for the thumb, any stranded CC will show up as threaded directly through the loops, with no way to hide it on the RS of the work.) 7. Return to knitting in both MC and CC from Charts 1 & 2 as usual until row 51. Place remaining 12 sts on safety pins. 8. Turn mitten inside out and rearrange sts onto 2 needles so that they’re evenly split between the two mitten sides. BO using three-needle bind off. 9. Unpick stitches indicating thumb join. Pick up resulting 18 live sts and knit 1 round in MC. 10. Choose which Chart 3 and 4 designs you want on which hand. Knit row 1 of the apropriate Chart 3 and then row 1 of the appropriate Chart 4 (or vice versa, depending on which design you want on the inside of the thumb). Continue for rows 2, 3, and so on. Break yarns, thread through last 6 sts and pull tight. 11. Weave in all ends. Repeat above for the next mitten, switching to the unused Charts 2 to 4 for symmetry.
CHART LEGEND \ / X =
knit in MC, stranding CC behind knit in CC, stranding MC behind left-slanting decrease, e.g. ssk right-slanting decrease: k2tog thumb join (see instruction #6) bring MC to front, knit 1 in CC, bring MC to back again; this makes a 1-stitch float for a ‘mouth’
brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
last updated Jul 2014 p. 2 of 6
CHART 1 (BACK OF BOTH MITTENS) row 50
row 45
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row 50
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row 45
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row 40
row 40
row 35
row 35
row 30
row 30
= row 25
row 25
row 20
row 20
row 15
row 15
row 10
row 10
row 5
row 5
row 1
row 1 20
15
brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
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last updated Jul 2014 p. 3 of 6
CHART 2A (PALM OF LEFT MITTEN) row 50
row 45
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row 50
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row 45
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row 40
row 40
row 35
row 35
row 30
row 30
row 25
row 25
row 20
row 20
X X X X X X X X X row 15
row 15
row 10
row 10
row 5
row 5
row 1
row 1 20
15
brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
10
5
1
last updated Jul 2014 p. 4 of 6
CHART 2B (PALM OF RIGHT MITTEN) row 50
row 45
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row 50
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row 45
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row 40
row 40
row 35
row 35
row 30
row 30
row 25
row 25
row 20
row 20
X X X X X X X X X row 15
row 15
row 10
row 10
row 5
row 5
row 1
row 1 20
15
brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
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5
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last updated Jul 2014 p. 5 of 6
CHARTS 3A & 4A (TWO SIDES FOR ONE THUMB) / /
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row 15
row 15
row 10
row 10
row 5
row 5
row 1
row 1
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5
CHARTS 3B & 4B (TWO SIDES FOR OTHER THUMB) / /
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row 15
row 15
row 10
row 10
row 5
row 5
row 1 5
row 1 5
NOTES If you haven’t done a lot of stranded knitting, keep in mind that it can pull rather tight when switching between needles in the round. Also, keep floats short so fingers don’t get caught. For those accustomed to Fair Isle knitting, I apologize for the long stretches of single colour that force you into that tedious wrapping in of the other colour, but it couldn’t be helped! If you actually managed to stumble across these charts without having seen a Miyazaki film, YOU MUST GO RENT ONE RIGHT NOW. Or, find out about them at nausicaa.net. You can message me (brella) at ravelry.com with questions or corrections. Happy knitting!
brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
last updated Jul 2014 p. 6 of 6
