Book Review: The Mitten Handbook

A long time ago, when I was writing the knitting website for About.com, someone asked me about all the different ways to knit thumbs on mittens.

I didn’t have a comprehensive list at the time, and didn’t know if there was one. And frankly I wasn’t that interested in mittens at the time to find out.

A long time ago, when I was writing the knitting website for About.com, someone asked me about all the different ways to knit thumbs on mittens, if someone asked me that question now, though, I could direct them to The Mitten Handbook by Mary Scott Huff. This book contains everything you need to know to knit your own mittens to any size, any gauge, using a variety of edging, cuff, thumb and top treatments.

Looking for more knitting patterns for Mittens? Check these out on Etsy.

It contains an overview of mitten parts and thoughts on yarn, ease and construction methods. There are instructions for working eight different kinds of edgings, cuffs, thumbs and tops, with notes on whether they can be worked from the top down or the bottom up or both.

The circular thumb might be my favorite — it’s worked from the tip of the thumb down and joined to the body of the mitten as you knit.

If you don’t like to design your own or want to start with a pattern you can customize, there are also 20 full patterns that will give you a place to start or some good projects you can knit as written. Some of my favorites include the tiny goldfish thumbless mitts for babies; Little Bird, a mitten featuring Latvian braids and bluebird colorwork; and Snow Day, with a pretty Fair Isle snowflake design. You can check out all the projects on Ravelry.

The Mitten Handbook is a great guide for mitten lovers and those who want to learn more about customizing and designing their own patterns with some hand holding and good advice from a pro.

About the book: 160 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published by Abrams. Retail price $19.99

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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