North Star Colourwork Mittens in Novita 7 Veljestä Polaris / 7 Veljestä Raita & 7 Veljestä - Downloadable PDF

North Star Colourwork Mittens – Pattern Summary

Designed by Lea Petäjä and published by Novita, the North Star Colourwork Mittens is a free, downloadable PDF knitting pattern for a pair of traditional-style stranded colourwork mittens sized for both women and men. The design features a bold geometric North Star motif worked in two contrasting colours, making it a striking and wearable project for knitters with intermediate experience.

What Is Being Made

The pattern produces a complete pair of mittens — a left mitten and a right mitten — with a thumb gusset worked using a waste yarn placeholder method. The mittens are sized to fit women and men, with stitch counts and row counts clearly differentiated throughout the instructions. The finished mittens feature a ribbed cuff, a colourwork body, and a fully shaped thumb and mitten top.

Yarn and Materials

The pattern calls for Novita yarn in an aran weight, with two yarn options offered for the main colour:

• Novita 7 Veljestä Polaris in shade 826 Light Ray
• Novita 7 Veljestä Raita in shade 870 Autumn Evening

The contrast colour used for the colourwork pattern is Novita 7 Veljestä in shade 010 Off White. Yarn requirements are under 100 g of the main colour and 50 g of the contrast colour for both sizes.

The pattern requires double-pointed needles in two sizes: Novita 3.5 mm (UK 9½ / US 4) for the ribbed cuff and Novita 4 mm (UK 8 / US 6) for the colourwork body. A small amount of different-coloured waste yarn is also needed to mark the thumb hole during construction.

Construction Method

Both mittens are knitted entirely in the round using a set of four double-pointed needles, with stitches divided evenly across the needles. The left and right mittens are mirror images of each other, with the thumb hole positioned on needle II for the left mitten and needle III for the right mitten. This in-the-round construction means there are no seams to sew, and the colourwork is always worked from the right side, making it easier to follow the chart.

Techniques Used

• Cast on and divide onto double-pointed needles – stitches are cast on and distributed evenly across four needles to form a seamless round
• Twisted ribbing in the round – the cuff is worked in a k1 through back loop, p1 rib, which creates a firm, elastic edge that holds its shape well
• Stranded colourwork (Fair Isle style) – the body of the mitten is worked following a charted geometric North Star pattern, carrying two yarn colours across each round
• Waste yarn thumb placeholder – a section of stitches is worked with a contrasting waste yarn to reserve the thumb opening, then returned to the needle and worked again in pattern; this is a clean and popular method for placing thumbs without interrupting the colourwork flow
• Thumb construction – after the body is complete, the waste yarn is removed and live stitches are picked up from the top and bottom edges of the thumb hole, with additional stitches picked up at the sides to achieve the correct stitch count
• Mitten top shaping – decreases are worked on specific needles over multiple rounds to shape the rounded tip of the mitten
• Finishing – yarn is broken and drawn through the remaining stitches to close the tip; ends are securely woven in

Stitches Used

• Twisted rib – worked as *k1 through back loop, p1*, repeated around; used for the cuff section on the smaller needles
• Stockinette stitch in the round – all stitches knitted on every round; forms the base fabric of the thumb and the plain transition rounds between the cuff and the colourwork body