Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Mitts and Mittens for Stash Busting

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I think this is the last big roundup of pattern ideas I’m planning for this month of stash busting, but if there’s something I haven’t covered you’d like to see ideas for, let me know.

Mitts, mittens and gloves are great projects for stash busting because they don’t usually use a whole lot of yarn, so you can make a pair with a single skein or use up some little bits and pieces to make a matching (or not matching) pair.

For instance, the 75 Yard Malabrigo Fingerless Mitts by Jeanne Stevenson. They use just a little of a really luscious yarn, and you’ve probably got lots of little bits that you could turn into sweet little mitts. Hello, gift knitting!

The Campout Fingerless Mitts by tante em are longer but super easy and pretty. You work the garter stitch band for the hand, then pick up stitches and work the arm part in the round.

The Stash-o-motastic Mitts from purl3agony are true stash busters, and you can even use a bit of yarn of different weights if you need to.

Another one for the sock knitters (or sock yarn hoarders) is the Midsomer Mitts from Snippents and Stash. These use two skeins because they’re nice and long, but you could use your leftovers, too.

The Daisy Stitch Hand Warmers and Colorblock Hand Warmers, both from Purl Soho would be great projects for using up little bits or larger amounts of the same color.

And the Quo Vadis pattern by SpillyJane and Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mitts are both great choices for the colorwork lovers.

And for a couple of lovely patterns you have to pay for, check out the Stash-Busting Stripes Mitts by Jane Irish Nelson or Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s lovely Cloisonée Mittens.

Have a favorite mitt pattern? I’d love to hear about it.

Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Knitted Mittens: 45 Distinctive Scandinavian Designs is sure to inspire you to want to knit some fun mittens, whether embellished with classic motifs like birds, hearts, moose and classic colorwork designs or those with a more modern feel liks guitars and skulls, a giraffe, penguins or a turquoise lizard.

The book includes a lot of instructions on how to make your mittens come out right, including a discussion of how different gauges can give you different sizes of mittens (and which mittens can be worked to different sizes for kids and adults). The charts are a little different from others you might have seen in that they show how to divide the stitches on the needles and where to place the thumb.

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

Comments

  1. These are some great (and colorful) mitt patterns. Thanks for sharing them, Sarah! I’ve made a couple pairs of the Camp Out Fingerless Mitts and love them! Really easy pattern, comfortable to wear, and looks really great in variegated or self-striping yarn.

    And, of course, I’m kind of fond of my own Stash-o-motastic mitts 🙂 Thanks so much for including my pattern here!

Have you read?

Knit a Classic Aran Cardigan with this Free Knitting Pattern

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time. 

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring. 

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. 

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row. 

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves. 

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body. 

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy. 

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn. 

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]