Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Knit Bernie’s Mittens from the Inauguration

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If you watched the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (or have been on the Internet any time since) you’ve seen, and maybe fallen in love with, the mittens worn by Bernie Sanders at the event.

His brown Fair Isle mitts were made by Jenn Ellis, a Vermont schoolteacher, who made them out of upcycled sweaters (the backs are blue, and the back of the thumb looks like another piece of Fair Isle knitting in green and white).

Alyssa Coffey released a chart for the backs of Bernie’s mittens, which fits into her plain mitten pattern, and could be adjusted somewhat to different sizes or gauges. (Though changing needle size is probably the best option since the design is nicely centered as it is.)

I love the idea of stitching these up for a Progressive friend, or maybe getting a jump on your Halloween costume?

You can grab the free chart on Ravelry.

Looking for more items featuring these now famous, Bernies Mitts – Check these fun Bernie items out on Etsy.

Need a Bernie beanie to go with those mittens? Check out this matching mitten pattern.

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!