Superstar Mittens

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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.

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

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Late to the Party

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After a recent kick of making hats, I finally found a good way to block hats–balloons! What took me so long? I blew them up to a 22 inch diameter and set the soaked hats on them to dry.

Talk about late to the party, I also just discovered Latvian braids! I just randomly decided to try them out on a hat and I love how they look. There are lots of youtube videos to help you understand how to make Latvian braids. I watched a few before trying it on a hat.

I chose my favorite hat and wrote up a pattern to share. I titled it Late Night Hat because I was late to learn about the balloon blocking and Latvian braids.

There are 5 color in this hat. If you choose colors that you already have consider using 3 dark shades and 2 light shades. For contrast, the Latvian braid should have 1 light color and 1 dark color. The background colors (main color 1 and main color 2) are both dark. The contrasting color is light and is the same for all the stranded colorwork. I used Knit Pick’s Palette and listed the colors in the pattern, but you could use other fingering weight yarns. Of course I recommend 100% wool.

Here’s the Free Pattern for Late Night Hat.

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

late-night-hat-updated-12_30Download

Men’s Christmas Mittens

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Happy Thanksgiving! A few weeks ago I worked out a new pattern for Extra-Large sized mittens. The colors and pattern design makes me think of Christmas but of course a fella could wear these any cold day.

Here’s the Free Pattern for Men’s Christmas Mittens. If you make them, please post on Ravelry or send me a photo.

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

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Mesquite, Nevada

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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!

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

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Dark Sky Mittens

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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!

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

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Darling Children’s Mittens

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Size Large, with Autumn Heather as Main Color
Size Medium, with Aurora Heather as Main Color

With my abundance of Knit Pick Palette fingerling weight yarn I went to work on a children’s mitten pattern that nicely fits small hands. I have plenty of left over yarn from all the mitten-making so this seemed like a good thing to work out as a use for small amounts of yarn.

Since children have such different sized hands I simply could not say “age 4” and have that make scenes. My grand baby that is 2 years old has bigger hands than his sister that is 3 1/2 years old. I went ahead and knitted all the sizes and measured them, that way you can take a measurement of a child’s hand and pick the right size in the pattern for them.

Here’s the FREE pattern. Enjoy!

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

DarlingChildren’sMittens.updated2025Download

Big Cuff Mittens

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I can’t seem to get away from knitting mittens. Sure, I make other things, but I always seem to come to the mitten. I started this pattern by making the large pair, then I worked out the other sizes. The colors from the small pair turned out to be my favorite so I’m using the midnight blue ones as my “cover shot”. The funny thing about this pattern is that I designed it all with paper and pencil instead of using the computer. We were staying outside of Durango, Colorado and I didn’t have internet. I normally use an online graphing site, stitchfiddle.com, to design my colorwork patterns. Since I didn’t have a connection for several weeks I ended up making with 4-stitch repeat pattern on paper. So old fashioned!

Here’s the pattern for FREE!

Please do not post this pdf on other websites! If you want to share it, just link to this page.

big-cuff-mittens-1Download

Gloves!

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This pair was given to a friend.

Starting at the beginning of 2022 I decided to learn to knit gloves. After dozens of mittens, it seemed like the next step. First I knitted a few patterns off ravelry.com but I didn’t like the fit of any of those gloves. I started to think I could design a better fitting glove myself.

My designs that didn’t make the cut.

The first thing I worked on was the thumb gusset—and I know thumb gussets from making mittens (my previous obsession).

This pair was made for me.

I got the shape down for my own hand, then I started working on standard sizing.

Working on size Large.

I thought that making gloves wouldn’t be fun because it’s so fussy to knit in the round with just a few stitches on each needle. The key to having fun with this is shorter double pointed needles that are specifically for making gloves. The first few pairs were made with 100% wool. The glove pattern I’m working on now calls for sock yarn – washable and durable. In the end, the pattern that worked well with fingers is a checkerboard. Each finger in my patterns has an even amount of stitches– the pinky has 16 stitches, the 1st finger has 18 stitches, the thumb has 20…. so the only pattern that would work in the round would be a 2 stitch repeat. That’s how I came up with this pattern that I will eventually publish here.

The inside of a glove waiting to be finished.