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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.
tiuku’s Norwegian Totoro mittens
I wanted to capture these elements
on mittens, which in the Norwegian
tradition are wonderful surfaces for brella is a Studio Ghibli otaku
intricate stranded knitting designs. If (fan) who knits and teaches at
you are comfortable with combining an alternative school in
mitten-knitting (in the round) with Toronto, Canada.
stranded knitting, then this pattern
should pose no problem.

brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens last updated May 2009 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
let keep one long 9-st float of CC rather
1. CO 48 sts in CC using your method of
than strand it in. When you go back and
preference. (I used a longtail cast on).
pick up the sts there for the thumb, any
2. Switch to MC. (You may wish to break stranded CC will show up as threaded
the CC and rejoin it later as needed, or directly through the loops, with no way
plan to carry it unbroken up the inside of to hide it on the RS of the work.)
the cuff). Join to knit in the round and
7. Return to knitting in both MC and CC
k2, p2 until end of row.
from Charts 1 & 2 as usual until row 51.
3. If desired, check to make sure there was Place remaining 18 sts on safety pins.
no twist when joining to knit in the round
8. Turn mitten inside out and rearrange sts
and mark beginning of round with stitch
onto 2 needles so that they’re evenly
marker. Continue in 2x2 rib in MC as
split between the two mitten sides. BO
set (k2, p2) until desired length of cuff
using three-needle bind off.
has been reached. (I went for 2".)
9. Unpick stitches indicating thumb join.
4. Knit 1 round plain in MC.
Pick up resulting 18 live sts and knit 1
5. Knit row 1 of Chart 1 and row 1 of the round in MC.
appropriate Chart 2, switching between
10. Choose which Chart 3 and 4 designs
MC and CC as indicated. Repeat for
you want on which hand. Knit row 1 of
rows 2, 3, and so on until row 18, or
the apropriate Chart 3 and then row 1 of
wherever you think the thumb should be.
the appropriate Chart 4 (or vice versa,
6. For the stitches in Chart 2 indicating the depending on which design you want on
thumb join, break both MC and CC, the inside of the thumb). Continue for
leaving nicely long tails for closing any rows 2, 3, and so on. Break yarns,
holes and weaving in ends later. Knit thread through last 6 sts and pull tight.
the join in contrasting waste yarn.
11. Weave in all ends. Repeat above for
(Note: in the next row at the sts directly the next mitten, switching to the unused
above the thumb join, you might want to Charts 2 to 4 for symmetry.

CHART LEGEND
knit in MC, stranding CC behind
knit in CC, stranding MC behind
\ left-slanting decrease, e.g. ssk
/ right-slanting decrease: k2tog
X 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 May 2009 p. 2 of 6


CHART 1 (BACK OF BOTH MITTENS)
/ \
row 50 / \ row 50
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
row 45 / \ row 45
/ \
/ \

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 10 5 1

brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens last updated May 2009 p. 3 of 6


CHART 2A (PALM OF LEFT MITTEN)
/ \
row 50 / \ row 50
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
row 45 / \ row 45
/ \
/ \

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 10 5 1

brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens last updated May 2009 p. 4 of 6


CHART 2B (PALM OF RIGHT MITTEN)
/ \
row 50 / \ row 50
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
row 45 / \ row 45
/ \
/ \

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 10 5 1

brella’s Norwegian Totoro mittens last updated May 2009 p. 5 of 6


CHARTS 3A & 4A (TWO SIDES FOR ONE THUMB)
/ \ / \
/ \ / \
/ \ / \

row 15 row 15

row 10 row 10

row 5 row 5

row 1 row 1
5 5

CHARTS 3B & 4B (TWO SIDES FOR OTHER THUMB)


/ \ / \
/ \ / \
/ \ / \

row 15 row 15

row 10 row 10

row 5 row 5

row 1 row 1
5 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 May 2009 p. 6 of 6

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