Project Notebook: Kid’s Fingerless Mitts

During a recent really cold snap, my daughter was complaining about how cold her hands get when she washes her hands. She’s five, so just turning on the warm water is out of the question.

I suggested I could knit her some mitts that she could wear in the house when her hands are cold (like I do most of the time in winter) and she was agreeable. I asked her what color she wanted and she found some gray yarn sitting out, left over from a recently finished project I hope to tell you more about soon, and said she wanted me to use that.

I whipped up a prototype that same evening and it seemed to fit, so I made the second after bedtime and they were ready to go the next day.

She first said she didn’t want to wear them to school because she couldn’t fit her hands in her pockets when she wore them, but she’s since realized she can wear them over her gloves for even more warmth, and I knit another version in red and orange which she likes a lot better. (Here’s the project on Ravelry, too.)

This is a really great, simple pattern for mitts for a little one that includes instructions on how to resize to fit different hands. I can attest that they’re really quick and easy since I knit four of them in a span of a few evenings. They’re also pretty darn cute and I’m thinking hard about a grownup version.

What’s on or off your needles recently? I’d love to hear about it!

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?