Review: Stitch Style Mittens

February 17, 2015 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

In honor of day two of snow in Arkansas, I thought it would be fun to look at a collection of projects that’s perfect for when you need to keep warm.

Stitch Style Mittens is an old book (published in 2007, but still available on Amazon) that includes 20 projects in knit and crochet. There are fingerless mitts, mittens, gloves and muffs by a variety of designers and for a range of skill levels.

There are some really cute projects here. I like the Spot-on Mittens by Judy Furlong, which are white with stranded knit spots worked in different colors. Jennifer L. Appleby’s Slip-Stitch Wrist Warmers are pretty and practical, in a classic stitch pattern and a sweet pairing of purple and pink. The super-long and picot-edged Textured Gloves from Malgosia Dzik-Holden are sophisticated show-stoppers, while Katherine Hunt’s Striped Mittens in black and white are a staple for knitters everywhere.

The Fair Isle Warmers pictured on the cover and designed by Gabrielle Carter are nice, too, and great practice on lots of little motifs (good for stash-busting, too). Most of the patterns can be viewed on Ravelry.

Some of the projects are a little strange, or just not suited to my taste, but if you’re a big fan of keeping your hands warm, this one is worth looking up.

Have you been knitting any mittens, gloves or mitts lately? 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.

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Plaid Knitting Patterns

I know plaid or tartan patterns are really Scottish, not Irish, but there’s something about this time of year (almost St. Patrick’s Day as I write this) that gets me thinking about plaid knitting patterns.

Plaid is fun to knit any time of year, of course, and can be a fun way to combine colors you wouldn’t normally use, or wouldn’t normally put together. Let’s check out some fun plaid knitting patterns!

This plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore on Etsy is a great one for dipping your toes into plaid as a technique or a design feature in your home. It makes plaid as easy as it can get but having you knit stripes horizontally but the vertical stripes are added with duplicate stitch.

I still miss a plaid sweater I had when I was in high school, but the Lumber Sweater pattern from The Knit is On // Mette Christensen is probably the closest I’ve seen to being able to re-create it without writing my own pattern. This design uses two strands of lace weight held together to make a sport weight yarn, which makes mixing the colors that much easier. It comes in six sizes and is available on Ravelry.

I love plaid for accessories like scarves and cowls, and I found a couple of great plaid cowl knitting patterns for you. The first is the Handy Ma’am Cowl from Catherine Clark, which is worked flat and seamed. It uses five colors of light fingering weight yarn and is fully lined in a solid color to make it super cozy to wear. Get the pattern on Ravelry.

Then there’s the Thegither Cowl from Amy Palko, which uses stripes and stranded colorwork to make the plaid design in three colors of fingering weight yarn. The pattern is worked in sections; for a longer cowl work three sections instead of two. There’s also a scarf version where the colors stay consistent if you want a mellower project. Check it out on Ravelry.

The Buffalo Plaid Baby Blanket from Little Barn Owl Store is a classic two color plaid that’s easy to knit and looks adorable. This one is worked in classic red and white but you can change it up to suit the baby’s room.

Speaking of blankets, I love this vintage plaid throw pattern from Chickie by the Sea. The original pattern actually called for Red Heart knitting worsted, which looks similar to Super Saver, but you can use any worsted weight yarn you like to complete this retro look.

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