Baby Compass Mittens in two sizes
This pattern has many names. I first learned of it from Mrs. Viette Cruikshank in Liscomb, Guysborough County (Nova Scotia). Mattie Owl, an Indian woman, called one evening many years ago at the home of Mrs. Cruikshank’s grandmother. Mattie Owl was wearing a ragged pair of double-knit mittens, which had been patched with scraps from other handknits, and the Liscomb woman’s eye was caught by the double-knit pattern on one of the patches—this pattern.
She gave Mattie Owl a pair of new double-knit mittens then and there in trade for the ragged pair, and when Mattie Owl left, Mrs. Cruikshank must have promptly sat down and copied the pattern in new yarn, because her family has knit mittens in that pattern ever since, calling it Mattie Owl’s Patch.
The pattern is not limited to the Cruikshank family, however, or even to Nova Scotia Indians. Other families in the Sherbrooke area knit it and call it Naughts and Crosses (the British name for tic-tac-toe). I learned that folkcraft writer Joleen Gorden found it knitted in the Barrington, Nova Scotia, area, where it is called Compass Work, and a woman in New Brunswick sent it to me under the name Spider’s Web.
It seems to be an 8-stitch variant of Fox and Geese, a 6-stitch rep.
—Janetta Dexter
My distant cousin Bertha York, of Harpswell, Maine, has childhood memories of her Aunt Esther Wilson knitting this pattern, which they called Compass Mittens or Compass Work. In spite of the local color of the Mattie Owl story, I still prefer the name “Compass Mittens,” perhaps because that name comes from my own people, the Harpswell Islanders of 100 years ago. And I can always see compass needles pointing north in the design.
I knit this baby mitten in a navy blue and natural cream for people like myself, who want their babies to carry on the family’s nautical tradition. Like many quilt designs, it offers young minds food for thought, directions to look to. —Robin Hansen
Yarn MC (light color) 1 oz (28.5g) sport weight yarn • CC (dark color) 1 oz (28.5g) sport weight yarn, preferably wool •
It’s fine to use Superwash™ for babies, although it’s not as warm when wet. Brunswick Yarns Pomfret, used for mitten in the photo, no longer exists, but we have had good luck with Jaggerspun 2/8, Halcyon Yarn Victorian, and Raumagarn Hifa. Any sport weight yarn that knits to correct tension will work. Baby yarn or fingering is usually too fine.
Equipment 1 set Size 2 (2.75mm, Can. Size 12) double-pointed needles, or size you need to knit in pattern at correct tension • 1 set Size 1 (2.25mm, Can. Size 13) double-pointed needles for ribbing
Tension 9 sts and 7 rnds = 1 ” (2.5cm) in pattern
ABBREVIATIONS beg: beginning • CC: contrast color • dec(s) : decrease(s) • inc(s): increase(s) • k: knit • k2tog: knit 2 together • MI: make 1 stitch • MIL: make 1 stitch left • MIR: make 1 stitch right • MC: main color • p: purl • rep: repeat • rnd(s): round(s) • SSK2tog: slip, slip, knit 2 sts together • st(s): stitch(es) • twisted MI: twisted make 1 cast-on
Measurements—inches and centimeters
| 6–12 mos | 2 years | 4 years | |
| Hand length | 3 | 3½ | 4⅛ |
| 7.5 | 9 | 10.5 | |
| Hand circumference, incl. tip of thumb | 4½ | 5 | 6 |
| 11.5 | 12.75 | 15.25 | |
| Mitten hand length | 3¼ | 3⅝ | 4¼ |
| 8.25 | 9.25 | 10.75 | |
| Mitten thumb (⅓ hand) | 1¼ | 1¼ | 1½ |
| 3.25 | 3.25 | 3.75 | |
| Mitten width | 2¼ | 2½ | 2¾–3 |
| 5.75 | 6.5 | 7–7.5 | |
Compass is a multiple of 8 rnds and 8 sts and is not easily knitted flat. Carry the darker color ahead (p. 16) at all times and weave in CC (p. 18) on Chart Lines 1 and 7.
In small children’s sizes, the large 8-st pattern rep wraps perfectly around the hand only in the three sizes given here.
I have used a boldly striped cuff to offset the fine lines of the pattern. If you want other stripes, look at the adult Checkerboard Mittens or Maplewood Mittens patterns for ideas. Stripes on the cuff tend to balance the amounts of the two yarns used, in some cases making it possible to get two pairs of mittens from two contrasting skeins of yarn (not a problem in these sizes, of course).
Don’t break the yarn at the end of its stripe. Carry it up to its next appearance.
This mitten has a longer than usual cuff—good to keep little wrists dry and warm.
