My hobbies of knit pattern designing and pickleball have bumped into each other. I had wanted to make a pickleball hat for a while and this idea finally came into my head. The challenge was the color yellow. I’m not a big fan of bright yellow so I had to work in other colors that I do like.
I wrote up the pattern and I’m posting it here for free. If you make it please send me a photo or post on Ravelry. Enjoy!
It may seem strange that I’d call these dark moody mittens “Joy” but I love deep dark colors. I’m quite happy with a lap full yarn and 5 little sticks (and a cup of strong coffee). Making these brought me joy.
Like the last few mittens that I’ve designed, I used the most simple seeding pattern for the palms and thumbs–alternating one light stitch and one dark stitch throughout.
Although the pattern has only 2 colors per row, it does change colors enough that it might be wise to weave in the ends as you go. This is how I knit and I know that it makes the yardage count on the low end. If you knit with the technique of weaving in all the tails of the color changes at the end of the project you will need the amount that is in the upper end of the range. For example, if the pattern says “Seude (CC2) 33-37 yards”, you’d want to err on the side of the greater amount if you leave tails as you knit. That being said, I think it’s worth learning how to weave in ends as you go. Using that technique will allow you to use less yarn, not have to manage all the strings as you go, and in the end not have so much work to do to finish the project.
Here’s the Free Pattern for Joy Mittens. Enjoy!
How many different colors do I want to put into a design? Often I make mittens (or hats or socks) with just 2 colors. It’s quite fun to just knit along not having to change colors as I go. Sometimes I do want the kind of patterns that involve multiple colors. That’s how I came up with Temptation Mittens. With 3 dark shades and 2 light shades, these mittens kept me entertained. I chose colors that I don’t usually see together. I used fingering weight yarns from the Knit Picks Palette line. They are called Caper, Ash, Silver, Lichen and Hazelnut.
I use to think that the palms of the mittens needed to be fancy but after making lots of mittens I started appreciating this really plain type of seeding stitch. It’s made by alternating light and dark using what ever strands you were working with on the front of the mitten. My pattern has this charted out for you but once you get the system down you don’t really need to look at the pattern when knitting the palms.
Here’s the Free Pattern for Temptation Mittens.
Third time’s a charm. After two other attempts of making mittens with this motif I finally got the colors how I wanted. This fair isle style pattern works with 2 colors at a time. The palms and thumbs are a simple seeding pattern of alternating light and dark. The cuffs are quite long and tight. They are so warm!
These were made with Knit Picks Palette line of yarns. Everything I’ve been making lately is with this yarn because I love it so much. The colors are amazing and the quality and price are great. You could substitute other fingering weight wool. If you are using bits of what you have around, you will need 3 dark shades and 2 light shades to get the contrast right.
Below is the pattern that you can download for free. Let me know if you make them–post on Ravelry or send me a message. Happy knitting!
I’m putting out back to back patterns this weekend. Yesterday I posted Star Power Mitts and today I’m posting Star Lit Mitts. They are both fingerless mitts with a star pattern. The thumbs are similar and they both have a corrugated ribbing. The colors make them different. The Star Lit Mitts were going to be Star “Light” –but that name was already taken. Plus, I like the rhyming nature of a Star Lit Mitt.
If you knit these mitts or any other of my patterns, please post on Ravelry or if that’s not your thing, send me a message with a photo. I’d love to see your work! I’m giving away the pattern for free. Enjoy!
You don’t need much yarn to make fingerless mitts. These took 70 yards for the main color (Coriander Heather) and 74 for the contrasting color (Black). That’s it. I used a fingering weight yarn. Everything was knitted with size 2 needles except the corrugated ribbing which I thought it best to go down to size 1 to give it a snug fit.
I love to add design elements to the thumbs—no plain thumbs here. I’m posting the mitten pattern for free. Why do I keep writing patterns and giving them out for free? I suppose I’m building some kind of portfolio. If I were to do something more complex, like a sweater in multiple sizes, I would charge for it. However, I like designing little things like hats and mittens for now. When I come up with a design that I think others might like to knit I make a pattern document and put it up on this website. I’m pretty happy with these small projects for now. Here’s the Star Power Mitts pattern for anyone to download:
During the last few weeks I’ve been knitting hats. I’ve been using the balloon blocking trick for blocking them like I wrote about in my Late Night Hat post. I figured out that you need to blow the balloon up smaller than your head size to get a snug fit. Try about an inch less than the head measurement and it should work.
Of all the hats that I’ve designed lately I thought this one–which I call New Year’s Cap– is worthy of a write up and post. I went with several classic Fair Isle componentes: corrugated ribbing, no more that 2 colors per row, and a fancy star on top. Below you will find the link to download the Free Pattern.
There are so many available knitting patterns now. Designing is interesting because it seems like everything has already been done so it’s quite the exercise to try to create something new. The Nordic star and been knitted a million times. Mittens are made in every color combination that you could think of. When I design mittens on my computer I will rework the motifs over and over again looking for a novel combination. When it comes to colors I can spend hours arranging balls of yarn on the floor like a crazy person.
My latest creation is called Superstar for no reason other than the star is big. I’m posting the pattern here for free. If you make them please send me a photo or post on Ravelry. It’s such a joy to see what people make with my patterns.
I’m waiting on a yarn order to start some new pattern ideas using warm color. In the meantime I took a look at my stash and found some semi-warm tones and worked up a mitten pattern that I had been thinking about. Now that I’m down in Mesquite I’m seeing warm colors all around me. In the spirit of these warm colors I put together this combo using Knit Pick’s Oyster Heather, Asphalt, Hazelnut, and Brass Heather.
I love a fancy mitten thumb! I had this idea in my head the other day when I woke up so I went to my computer and started working it out on a graph. I’ve written the up the pattern below and I’m giving it out for FREE. Enjoy!
These mittens were inspired by two things, one being the color of Knit Picks Palette Abyss. It’s this amazing dark blue that reminds me of darkness of a truly dark sky. That dark sky–the one that you can only find in remote places away from light pollution is the other inspiration for these. The brightness you see from the stars is only there because of the dark sky. I felt like making a high contrast mitten using the beautiful color of Abyss (Knit Picks) and White.
Keeping with my theme of fancy thumbs, this one has a patterned thumb gusset. This is a charted pattern and while you are making the thumb gusset you work off of two charts at the same time. I’m a big fan of the thumb gusset style mitten because they fit the hand so much better than other styles. Enjoy this free pattern!
Fleece Love and Happiness 