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

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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