Nordic Invaders Mittens – A Birthday Relaunch

The Quiet Thread
Issue No. 03 – Nordic Invaders Mittens – A Birthday Relaunch
Stories from our home at 682.5 metres above sea level

August 26th is Carlos’ birthday, and we couldn’t think of a more meaningful way to celebrate than by bringing back one of his favourite designs — beautifully reimagined as the Nordic Invaders Mittens.

A Design with Deep Roots

The story begins in 2008, when we were commissioned by the advertising agency McCann to collaborate on a sweater design for a campaign promoting Norwegian brown cheese. The slogan was “a classic tradition reimagined,” and our task was to give something deeply familiar a fresh twist. The result was the Cheese Attacks sweater — a traditional Norwegian motif inspired by the Setesdal/Marius sweaters, transformed into playful pixel-like shapes, echoing the visual language of early video games like Space Invaders.

That same year, the motif caught the eye of Comme des Garçons, and we launched a collaboration with them as part of their Crystal Journey holiday collection. Our knitwear, embellished with Swarovski crystals, appeared in their stores in London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo — an extraordinary leap from rural Norway to the international fashion stage

See the ARNE & CARLOS x Comme des Garçons collection here.

In December 2008, we travelled to their Paris store for the launch and were utterly gobsmacked by the way everything was displayed. The interiors were magnificent — so much artistry and thought had gone into the displays. To walk into one of the most prestigious shops in Paris, on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and see our own work presented there was surreal. Looking back, it was probably the highlight of our career in fashion.

A few years later, in 2012, this collection was also included in the exhibition created by Nasjonalmuseet (The National Museum) in Oslo to celebrate ten years of ARNE & CARLOS.

Image from the exhibit ARNE & CARLOS. Eit Ferdaminne, curated by the National Museum in in oslo in 2021. Photo © Nasjonalmuseet / Børre Høstland

From Archive to Present

Not long after, we reimagined the design once more — this time as mittens, which combined the same playful pixel spirit with traditional stranded colourwork, and quickly became one of our most popular patterns, knitted by people all over the world.

And then, as so often happens, we moved on to other projects, and the mittens slipped quietly into our archive, where they have rested for at least eight years.

This summer, we decided it was time to bring them back — but with a new name and a refreshed approach. The Nordic Invaders Mittens remain true to the originals, but come with a refined fit, mirrored charts, fresh design elements, and yarn recommendations that are easy to find today. The essence of the design remains unchanged, but the knitting experience has been updated and improved.

A Full Circle

Looking back, it feels remarkable to see how far this idea has travelled — from a cheese campaign with McCann, to the runways of Comme des Garçons, to the halls of the Nasjonalmuseet, and finally into the hands of knitters everywhere.

And perhaps this is the real highlight: not the Paris displays or the museum walls, but the countless knitters who have made these mittens their own. To see a design come alive in so many hands, in different yarns and colours, and carried out into daily life — that is where it truly belongs.

A little heritage, a little nostalgia — and plenty of warmth for winter.

👉 Click here to get our Nordic Invaders mitten pattern