Most of the double-knit mittens in Maine, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick are worked in small allover geometric patterns that come from families of primarily Yankee/Scots-Irish/Scottish/English descent. They have been on this continent a long time. No one knows for sure where the patterns came from. Some are knitted in the North Atlantic islands today in much the same way they are knitted here. Some are knitted in parts of Scandinavia as well and certainly in the Swedish northern Aroostook County of Maine.
Some Mainers attribute certain patterns to acquaintances from the Maritime Provinces or Nova Scotia. Some Canadians are sure the patterns came to them from the States with the Loyalists and other immigrants. In fact, there has been so much backing and farthing between the Maritimes and New England and there are so many shared attributes between the two areas that the mingled traditions will probably never be sorted out. And it probably doesn’t matter.
Janetta Dexter has written much of this section because she collected double-knit patterns in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick before it ever occurred to me. She knows more about the knitting in those two provinces than I ever will. Of the patterns here, graphs of Flying Geese, Maplewood, and Mattie Owl’s Patch (Compass) first appeared in her book Nova Scotian Double-Knitting Patterns. (See “Read More about Traditional Mittens” on p. 213.) I’ve put in a word or two concerning those of her patterns which also occur in Maine or which I know something about, but really, this section belongs to Janetta.
Janetta Dexter, retired school teacher, sheep farmer, spinner, dyer, and knitter, who collected traditional double-knitting patterns in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and self-published a booklet of patterns that sold out in three days.