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How to Knit the Warmest Mittens Ever

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tips for knitting warm mittensI’m really a knit glove kind of person. Once I discovered that fingers are not as hard as I’d imagined, I kind of stopped knitting mittens.

But I definitely see their appeal for times like walking outside when you don’t need free use of your fingers, or for kids whose hands grow way too fast to fuss with tiny fingers. And they do keep your hands warmer because all the fingers are next to each other, but when your hands get as cold as mine do, it’s hard to tell the difference.

While you’re going to the trouble to knit you own mittens, you’re going to want to make them as warm as you can, right?

Interweave has some great tips for knitting warmer mittens, including using wool and a tighter-than-normal gauge. Using felting or stranded knitting to make the mitts warmer are also great ideas.

Another tip: knit the cuffs longer than seams reasonable. This allows you to tuck them into your coat so your wrists or lower arms don’t get exposed to the cold.

Do you have any mitten knitting tips or a favorite pattern? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Guillemet Mittens from Knit Mitts, via Interweave.]

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

Comments

  3. I took a mitten class at the local yarn store. Have one complete. Really not sure about starting another one! Need to find a book for beginners – when I look on line the covers all look great …. uncertain of the insides. I always am appreciative of the book reviews. Craft Gossip rules.

Have you read?

Fun Halloween Cowls to Knit

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine. 

Case in point: Halloween cowls. 

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute. 

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like. 

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use. 

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry. 

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart. 

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry. 

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry. 

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.