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?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.