Remember November with this Knit Hat and Mitt Set

I don’t know what happened to Vanessa Smith that one November so that she needed to commemorate it in yarn, but I think it’s a good thing for the rest of us that she did.

The Novemberist hat and mitts patterns feature two-color stranded colorwork in a chevron pattern, making them classic enough to wear every day but with a spark of something special, too.

Use a tonal or multicolored yarn for one of the colors to make it look like a much more complicated project than it is.

The hat is worked from the bottom up and has a doubled brim, as well as being extra thick because of the stranded knitting on the rest of the hat. The mitts are the same, with turned hems on both ends and stranded knitting everywhere else. That makes the mitts warmer than you might expect from fingerless gloves while still being functional. Both patterns use DK weight yarn, so they’re warm without being too heavy.

The hat comes in two sizes and the mitts in one, women’s medium, so you can stitch them up for yourself or any of your friends who might need some stylish warmth this season.

And they don’t use a whole lot of yarn so you can maybe even use leftovers from other projects if you’re making just the hat or the mitts, or make them with different colors if you don’t care about them matching perfectly.

You can find both patterns on Ravelry: the hat is here, and the mitts here.

If you’re a fan of chevrons, check out this cute chevron yoked sweater, a great fleecy throw, this classic single-color chevron sweater or this bold chevron throw with a great color gradient. If I didn’t already have too many blankets I would definitely knit that one!

[Photo: Vanessa Smith]

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Just about anything you can make in fabric you can make in knitting, but there are some styles that you just don’t see that often translated into knitting.

For example, a button down collared shirt. This is a classic design, of course, and it looks great in a knit version, but it’s just not something you see much of.

Noma Ndlovu’s Guglethu shirt is the pattern to try if you want to knit your own button down shirt. This one is inspired by cashmere tops (though the sample was made out of yak yarn, not cashmere, and uses two strands of lace weight yarn held together) and includes lots of high-fashion details like double-knit cuffs, collar and shoulder seams.

It has a patch pocket on the front and 10 buttons including the button band and the cuffs.

The designer says you can also use a DK weight yarn held singly if you’d rather, and that the shirt looks good in a variety of yarns. There is another version on Ravelry that uses Berroco Remix Light, which is a mix of nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk and cellulose fibers. It has a more relaxed look but it still really pretty.

The pattern has 12 sizes, with a full bust measurement ranging from 32.35 to 72.25 inches, or 82 to 183.5 cm. The designer suggests 2 to 6 inches, or 5 to 15 cm, of positive ease when you pick your size. I could totally see knitting one that’s even bigger to wear more like a jacket, because I do that a lot with button down shirts I already own.

I love all the details on this shirt, which isn’t necessarily difficult to knit, but might introduce you to some things you’ve never knit before (like those cuffs with the plackets, or a shirt collar like this).

To learn more about this shirt and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself, head to Ravelry.

[Photo: Noma Ndlovu]

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