Street Mitts

When I lived in California the only time I ever really wore mittens was the very few times it snowed, winter soccer practices, and when we went snowboarding and skiing. Moving up to Washington I could not believe how freaking cold I was the first year. 

Mittens are now part of my winter staples from November until about March/April. With the use of more mittens came the want for more matching colors. I have a beautiful pair of pumpkin orange mittens I knit in college to wear while I was waiting for the bus after night classes but pumpkin doesn't really match my purple winter coat all that well. 

With my love for scrappy projects and my need for more mitts the Street Mitts were born! Street Mitts are a broken rib mittens pattern that incorporates mini skeins and fun play with color. Street Mitts are also a collaboration with Leading Men Fiber Arts, I'm their in-house designer for 2025! I'll have another blog post coming about that soon! 

Street Mitts uses less than 100 grams of fingering weight to knit any of the 3 sizes available. I knit both a striped pair and a pair with a single skein to show the possibilities within one pattern. Designed with a US 1.5 needle size means that your favorite sock size should be perfect for this project.

Fingering weight is on the lighter side of yarn weights so for a cool winter climate this is perfect as outer wear, for a cold winter climate Street Mitts make a great mitten liner! Have a fun pop of color tucked inside your regular mittens. I used a hearty Merino/Nylon blend like I'd use for socks so this hard wearing accessory will last me years. 

The stripe pattern of Street Mitts makes them a great project to try out a new color palette or use leftovers from one of your favorite projects. Sometimes you love a color palette and it really doesn't match your style for a large piece. Street Mitts solves that problem by adding just a pop of color and give you the pleasure of a fun knit. 

Lambing Mitts

Designing is fun, super fun actually, but to get a design started is time consuming and I don't always have the brain power to start. At this point few weeks ago I decided to cast on a simple project that I've had planned for years. 

I cast on the Lambing Mitts with yarn I purchased in 2015 on a trip to Ireland! I purchased quite a bit of yarn while on my trip and I've used quite a bit of it but this is a skein that's been hanging around. 

The Lambing Mitts are a free pattern available on Ravelry and super simple to follow and knit. I made the medium size with a US 8 needle; why 8, because that's what I had in my needle collection:) 

This pattern was my preference over full mittens because I can fold down the cuff and have my fingering accessible but then unfold and have nearly all of my hands covered. If you're looking for a quick knit or a gift project this is a great one! 

Mittens for Me!

I actually knit something that wasn't from my own pattern...I know, what!?! After two and a half consecutive years of knitting, almost exclusively, my own designs I knit a really fun (and necessary) project. Mittens are a project I've only knitted a few times but are sorely needed up here, my fingers have been freezing and my only pair of mittens were pumpkin orange. 

I started with my yarn first, I had a solid color I picked up at Stitches West many, many years ago and a variegated fingering weight I thought was going to be a hat. The solid color is a merino wool, silk, and qiviut blend and it was divine to work with! Qiviut it a musk ox down fiber that is terribly expensive because it is harvested by hand not sheered. The yarn is one of the warmest fibers available and it's incredibly soft. Here is a link to learn a little more about qiviut fiber. I held my two yarns together (and reached approximately a sport weight yarn) and made the most beautiful marled mittens. My variegated color is Koigu fingering weight and I love how the two played together. You can check out my project page on Ravelry here. 

When I decided I was going to make mittens I decided to start top down incase I ran out of the pink yarn. I  thought that I could finish the cuffs in just the variegated if I ran short, turns out, I didn't need to worry! I didn't run out of either yarn and have wonderful mitts! 

I used a mitts pattern that originally had a stitch pattern but I opted to use the cast on instructions and the increasing but just knit plain stockinette. Now that I've knit one pair like this (following someone else's pattern but changing quite a lot) I have an idea of how I would design a pair of top down mittens. Maybe a pattern for fall 2022? 

I have a few more yarns set aside for mittens, some multicolored and some solids so you'll probably see another post or two in the future!