What to Knit Holiday 2012 5 - Mittens

Those who follow this blog or know me personally know that Mittens are among my favorite things in the world - to knit, to give, to receive, to read about, to write about...  Mittens are friendly, cheerful, cozy, practical, and well-received by all who live or work or vacation in wintry weather.  This year's round up includes the ones I'm hoping for this season.  Which ones?  You can surprise me!

Bias Cable Mittens

Our first mittens, Bias Cable Mittens, come to us from Elegant Yarniverse blog, and were designed by Jenny Jo.  If you have any doubt you can do this, get over it.  Of course you can.  The diagonal effect is created by simple increases and decreases.  This is beautifully creative, but not hard.  It's a very warm and durable design, and as you can see, has optional gauntlet or ribbed cuffs.

Cabobble Mittens

Next up are the Cabobble Mittens, which have a simple and elegant architectural feel to them.  Cailyn Meyer, the author of the Daily Skein blog, offers these lovely mittens with a well written pattern.  Knit in DK weight yarn on US 3s, they have a firm, dense fabric that still manages to be soft and supple.  I'm always a sucker for a pretty cable, and the bobbles are easy and tiny, so if you're new to them, this is a great way to get acquainted!

Pirate Mittens

From Adrian Bizilla of HelloYarn.com come the Pirate Mittens.  If you loved the hat recommended in the What To Knit Hats article, you'll definitely want to make the matching mittens. Sport weight yarn knit in stranded colorwork on US 3s makes a warm fabric that will keep you dry in all of your outdoor endeavors.  When choosing yarn for these mittens, yarns with a high twist per inch and a low halo (the fuzzy haze around the yarn itself) will show the pattern better and wear much longer.  Wool is equally warm when wet, so if you're making these for the snowball fight prone, you may want to head to the superwash wool section of the store!

Little Zebra Mittens

The Little Zebra Mittens by Odessa Reichel are adorable for young children.  This is one of the rare occasions when I will recommend using a synthetic yarn.  Be aware that not all natural fiber yarns are colorfast (no matter what they say), so if you want to use wool or cotton, you may want to test your yarn for colorfastness first. This can be done by snipping off a 2 inch piece of yarn, soaking it thoroughly, and then rubbing it for 30 seconds to 1 minute between two white paper towels.  If no color comes off, you're good.  If it does, you'll want to launder and dry your yarn while it's still in the hank.  For fun and craziness, consider making these mittens in colors other than black/white, or brown/white.  Maybe rainbow and red?  Very joyful!




For those who love traditional knits, these Chrysanthemum Mittens by Mary Ann Stephens of the Two Strands blog are lovely.  They are a Norwegian Stranded style, and like all stranded knits, very warm and long-wearing.  They're easy to appreciate by men or women, depending on the color combination you choose. 

But we all know some men in our lives who will only wear things that are overtly MANLY.  For that person, try the 3 St Waffle Mittens, posted on Ravelry by Zortified.  They knit up quickly in worsted weight, the pattern is as easy as I've ever seen for a mitten, and you can make 'em in any color(s) he likes.  Black cuffs on a chocolate mitten might be great, or a solid charcoal heather yarn would be strong and rugged.  If he's a sports fan, maybe combine cuff and body colors in his team colors. 

I hope these help you in your holiday knitting preparations.  And if you make any of these, by all means share a photo with us.  We'd love to see, and we promise we won't ruin the surprise!