Practical beauty
A friend a work gifted me with a Latvian mitten kit a couple of years ago. I've waited to start these until I had taken a class. In other traditional colorwork techniques, usually only two colors are worked at once. My teacher said that Latvians weren't afraid to use 3, 4, or event 5 colors at once, which is not the easiest to manage.
I went home and discovered that these mittens used 4 colors in each row. I spoke with my friend (whose family came from Latvia), and she responded, "Well, Latvia is a cold cold country, and Latvians are a practical people. All the strands make for a warm mitten." Which gave me a nice appreciation of all the people knitting warm mittens while making them colorful, cheerful, and beautiful.
Practical beauty
A friend a work gifted me with a Latvian mitten kit a couple of years ago. I've waited to start these until I had taken a class. In other traditional colorwork techniques, usually only two colors are worked at once. My teacher said that Latvians weren't afraid to use 3, 4, or event 5 colors at once, which is not the easiest to manage.
I went home and discovered that these mittens used 4 colors in each row. I spoke with my friend (whose family came from Latvia), and she responded, "Well, Latvia is a cold cold country, and Latvians are a practical people. All the strands make for a warm mitten." Which gave me a nice appreciation of all the people knitting warm mittens while making them colorful, cheerful, and beautiful.