The Quiet Thread
Issue No. 04 – The First Selbu Mitten
Stories from our home at 682.5 metres above sea level

👉 Click here to explore our Selbu mitten patterns

The story goes that in 1857, a young girl named Marit Guldsetbrua Emstad walked into Selbu Church wearing something no one had seen before: a pair of knitted mittens with striking black and white patterns.

Now, the historical fact is this: Marit was the first known person to knit what became the Selbu mitten, and from that moment the style spread like wildfire. That much we know.

But I like to imagine the scene with a little more drama. In my version, Marit didn’t just sit quietly in her pew. Oh no. She was waving her hands around as if she was wearing a huge diamond engagement ring. Pointing here, gesturing there, greeting everyone she could. She couldn’t stop waving, and of course everybody noticed. The following Sunday, a couple of the quicker knitters arrived at church with their own versions. And within a few weeks, every girl in Selbu was wearing them. Soon enough, boyfriends were receiving mittens too. In no time at all, what had started as Marit’s creation had become the must-have fashion of the region.

This is, of course, my embellished version of events — exaggerated and historically incorrect. But it does capture the spirit of how quickly the Selbu mitten tradition spread, and how it became a symbol of pride and skill.

Portrait of Marit Guldsetbrua Emstad (1841–1929), credited with knitting the first Selbu mitten. Photo from the National Archives of Norway (Riksarkivet), Landbruksdepartementet, Heimeyrkekontoret

From village to big business

Within just a few decades, Selbu mittens had gone from being a local curiosity to big business. By the 1920s and 1930s, mittens from Selbu were being exported around the world. Practically everyone knitted them — men, women, children, even lumberjacks after long days of work. At night, needles clicked in every household.

The demand was so high that Selbu Husflidscentralen was founded in 1899 to organize and quality-control the mittens, ensuring that only the very best examples were sent for sale. It became a huge industry, and the pointed black-and-white mitten from a small village in Norway achieved worldwide fame.

A living tradition

And here’s something I love: the tradition is still alive today. If you visit any Husfliden shop in Norway, you can buy hand-knitted Selbu mittens made by locals in Selbu. The fact that this small community still produces these mittens, nearly 170 years after Marit first waved hers in church, is quite extraordinary.

What makes a Selbu mitten?

A Selbu mitten doesn’t necessarily need to feature the Selbu rose — it can include other motifs too. But among the hallmarks are the pointed shape (not rounded like many other mittens) and the use of strong geometric patterns. These two characteristics alone make a Selbu mitten immediately recognizable.

All of our own mitten designs — whether modern or based on historical ones — are versions of Selbu mittens, even when we leave out the famous rose.

A little pandemic reenactment

We actually visited Selbu during the pandemic. Of course, the church was closed on the day we chose to go (our timing is always impeccable), but we did manage to stop at the Selbu Museum. We each bought a pair of mittens from the museum shop — partly to support the local community, partly because one can never have too many mittens.

Then we stood outside the church and staged a reenactment. I took on the role of Marit, dramatically waving my mittened hands as if I was wearing a huge diamond ring. Arne played the slightly envious girl in the pew behind. History, relived with a wink.

At the Selbu museum in 2021, standing in front of a giant Selbu mitten — a striking tribute to Norway’s most iconic knitting tradition. The Selbu mitten has become a national symbol of handcraft, carried forward for generations and still knitted in Selbu today.

A small thank you

To celebrate this wonderful tradition, we’re offering 30% off all our mitten patterns this week. If you’d like to knit your own version of Marit’s show-stopping accessory, now is the perfect time.

👉 Click here to explore our Selbu mitten patterns