Make Your Mittens with Colorwork

Mittens are a utilitarian item if ever there was one. They just need to keep our hands warm reliably. They don’t have to be cute.

But since we’re knitters and we’re going to knit our own mittens anyway, they might as well be cute, too, right?

It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of effort to make a pair of mittens that’s objectively nicer than the options you could buy in a store, but if you want to put in a little more work than that, so you can have a really nice and pretty and warm pair of mittens, I’ve got just the thing for you.

The Hibernus Mittens from Fleece Love and Happiness are meant to be Christmas adjacent, but not so holiday that you don’t want to wear them in the not-Christmas cold season (which, where I live, is almost all of it, since it doesn’t usually get that cold until January).

It’s really the colors that give them a holiday feel, since the colorwork itself isn’t holiday, and blue dominates in the colorwork flowers and diamonds.

These mittens are perfect for intermediate knitters and have lots of fun techniques included. They’re worked from the bottom up with ribbing and a Latvian braid, then the colorwork is charted and has four colors total. There are charts for the back of the hand, the palm and the thumb, but the palm and thumb are an easy checkerboard pattern so you won’t have to follow the chart as you go on those.

The pattern uses super fine yarn and comes in one size for adults. Of course wool yarn would be the best choice here for warmth if you can handle wool on your hands.

You can download the free pattern from the Fleece Love and Happiness blog.

[Photo: Fleece Love and Happiness]

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The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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