Felt Mittens with Knitted Cuffs
I am so excited that autumn is here! I love the chill in the air and the rich colors of the leaves as they turn from green to red and gold. The fall makes me want to can fruit, bake bread, knit and sew. But alas, I’m not a canner or a very good bread baker… I am however a sewer and a knitter!
The mitt part of the mittens is sewn out of Mary Flanagan Felted Wool, one of my all time favorite things we carry. It is warm and soft and comes in the most beautiful array of hand-dyed colors, from the vibrant “Holiday Red” pictured here to lovely naturals and blues. To compliment the soft feel of the wool I used Blue Sky Alpacas Solid Sport Weight 100% Alpaca to knit the cuff. Since I haven’t been knitting very much lately I had forgotten what a joy this yarn is. It comes in such amazing colors and the fabric it makes is unbelievably luxurious.
Designed by Purl Soho designer, Molly Schnick. Click here to see even more of Molly’s work!
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, and #PurlSohoFeltMittenswithKnittedCuffs. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Materials
To make one pair of medium size women’s mittens:
- Two pieces of Mary Flanagan Felted Wool in Fire Brick
- One skein of Blue Sky 100% Alpaca Sport Weight Solids in color 531 Paprika
- One spool 100% cotton thread in color 5910
- A #13 needlepoint needle
- One Felt Mitten Pattern available to download for free here
- One set of five double pointed knitting needles in US size 3 or size needed to get the gauge.
- Tailor’s chalk
Shop our wonderful collection of sport-weight yarn to find a suitable substitute for this project, and remember that it’s always a good idea to check your gauge before you cast on… Our All About Gauge Tutorial shows you how!
The gauge for the knitting in this project is 8.5 stitches per inch in an un-stretched knit one purl one rib in the round.
Size
10 inches long by 4 1/4 inches wide
Pattern
Cutting
Cut out your felt according to the Felt Mitten Pattern Templates. You will have:
- 2- Mitten Backs
- 2- Top Palms
- 2- Bottom Palms
Since the Mary Flanagan wool doesn’t have a right side and a wrong side you don’t need to worry about which of the pieces are for the left and which are for the right while you’re cutting. Make sure to include the marks on the side of the Bottom Palm Pieces.
Pinning and Sewing
Pin the Bottom Palm pieces on top of the Top Palm pieces along the thumb and short side as shown above. Make sure that the thumbs on the two pieces are facing different directions.
Sew along these pinned sides with a 1/4-inch seam. Try to sew the curve of the thumb as smooth as you can.
Trim the seam allowance to a scant 1/8-inch.
Pin the Mitten Back pieces to the newly sewn pieces, right sides together. Fold the thumbs in and away from the edges so you don’t sew them into the seam by accident.
Sew around the perimeter of the mitten with a 1/4-inch seam allowance back stitching at each end.
Trim this curve to 1/8-inch and turn them right side out, including the thumb.
If you’ve sewn them correctly the thumb will have a neat “Y” seam at it’s side as shown above.
Attaching the Cuff
Using the tailor’s chalk, mark a horizontal line 1/2-inch from the bottom edge of the mittens on both the outer and palm sides. Then mark the middle of each side along the horizontal line.
Thread the needlepoint needle with a 36-inch length of your yarn. Tie a knot 4-inches from the end of the yarn.
Pull your needle up from the wrong side of the fabric at the marked midpoint of the palm side of the mitten and then stick your needle back into it’s exit point. Place one of the knitting needles in the resulting loop and pull the loop snuggly around the knitting needle. This is your first stitch!
Pull your needle out approximately 1/8-inch to the right of the first stitch and loop the yarn over the knitting needle and go back into that stitches exit hole just as you did to create the first stitch.
Add stitches in this way until you have 15 stitches on the needle and have reached the side seam. If you end up with a different amount of stitches pull everything out and start again.
Keep going in this manner adding 15 stitches in each of the four marked sections. Try to keep your stitches straight along the marked line.
You will end up with 60 stitches total. Take care to do this stage neatly and don’t be afraid to pull the stitches out and start over from the beginning.
Knitting on the Cuff
Now that all of your stitches are cast on you can start knitting on the cuff. You’ll be knitting in the round. Place the mitten so it’s upside down and begin your knitting at the center of the palm side.
Round 1: Knit all stitches through the back loop.
All subsequent rounds: *Knit one, Purl one, repeat from * for entire round.
Work in this knit 1, purl 1 rib unitl your knitting measures 2 1/4-inches.
Bind off in pattern and weave in your ends.
Block the mitten by pinning it to a towel or your ironing board and spraying it with water and letting it air dry.
Repeat for the second mitten and enjoy!
Seriously, this is the pattern I’ve been looking for and I just didn’t know it! I have made a few pairs of mittens out of recycled wool, but am never happy with the cuffs. It never occurred to me that I could knit them. Thanks so much! I’m already contemplating sizing them down for a kid’s version….
Unbelievable!!!!! Where do you come up with these fantastic projects?!!!! Keep it up !!!
These are absolutely wonderful! Any idea what size hand they best fit or scaling for children?
Now THAT’s a mitten I’d love to make and wear! I really like knitting in the round, but have a hard time liking the mittens I make or the socks I try to make (I usually end up with just one sock, LOL).
Thanks for sharing – I’m printing off the pattern now 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving! (early if you’re American, on time if you’re Canadian like me).
Cindy
I have been searching for this very pattern as well! Have you tried this pattern using old wool sweaters? I have a bag of old sweaters and wanted to make mittens from them. Thoughts, anyone??
Thanks so much!!!
This is awesome. I was so surprised to see how the cuff was knitted on! I love it!
Hi Ginger.-
Thanks for your comment. These mittens are a women’s medium size, 10-inches long by 4 1/4-inches wide. They fit most women who I have tried them on.
I don’t think scaling them up or down would be too hard. They were designed to fit my hands, which are 6 1/2-inches long, from wrist to middle finger, and 3-inches wide at the knuckles. You could use those measurements as a guide for blowing up or shrinking the pattern on a copy machine if you measure the hand of the person you’re making these for. And then for the knitted cuffs you could do a gauge and cast on as many stitches as will fit snugly around the person’s wrist. Hope this is helpful. Thanks again for your comment!- Molly
I love my mittens. My daughter and I made ours out of wool bats ( Raw wool processed into flat rolls for quilting or felting etc.) and then after they were decorated with needle felting we felted them to fit our hands. Thank you for the fun morning.
You’ll get a much smoother look if you clip the seams as well as trimming them.
Have you thought about putting together some kits? To order the project online one would have to match thread, felt and yarn. I am not sure I am able to do that. Any suggestions? Or could we tell you what color and then you could help us?
Hi Susan,
We don’t have kits at this time but we’d be happy to help you out. Please send our online shop an email and they’ll get you all set up. You can email purlsoho.com at this link:
https://www.purlsoho.com/purl/contact
What a nice pattern and the photos are lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the pattern. I made the mitts from an angora felted vest. The old style of ladies dress vest from the 80’s that had the side open from the armpit to the wasit. I did add a 1/4″ to the palm piece to allow for the seam allowance in the palm and still have the top of the hand piece and bottom piece line up. I used the side cuff on the vest as the mitt cuff, extending your pattern palm and top piece each by 1 1/4″. Thanks, I’ve been looking for a pattern with the thumb piece instead of making mittens that look too much like oven mitts.
I was given a gift of handmade boiled (felted) wool mittens. Now it's Christmastime and I wanted to make them for my sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews. I didn't want just 'traced hand' mittens and money is so tight in Michigan right now that I couldn't pay for a pattern and I didn't want to take my gift mittens apart!
Thank you sooo much for offering these step-by-step photos. I've got my boiled sweaters and will begin cutting the patterns! I'm very grateful to you today.
I'm doing a mitten round up tomorrow and this is going to be part of it! Hope you can come by and check it out. Oh, and grab a featured button if you would like. http://nap-timecreations.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the great pattern, I've sewn a pair form az old wool sweater:) Link to my blogpost: http://rebabastudio.blogspot.hu/2013/01/kesztyu.html
Greetuings from Hungary:)
I really wish you had out sizing in the pattern instructions. I just cut out quite a bit of nice fabric for friend’s mitts to realize the don’t fit me or my friends (big hands). Will resize and cut, but definitely a waste.
Hi Diandra-
I am so sorry to hear this! The finished size was listed in the materials section, just before the materials list. However, I can see how you would have missed it so I reformatted the pattern a bit so that the size is more obvious. Sorry again, and thank you for getting in touch!
Molly
Thank you so much for the pattern of theese beautiful mittens, it seems easy to understand 🙂 I really look forward to try to make my dauther some mittens!
I love your mittens , I have been making mine with a fleece lining which I cut longer than the outside of the mitten and fold over to form a cuff , I’m trying to figure a way to have the fleece lining with a knitted cuff . The knitted cuff gives a professional look and will also form a nice fit .
I am going to try this pattern to accompany “The Mitten” book with small animals to get some warmth. Hoping to achieve the knitted cuff.
Thank you for the pattern. Love it.