DIY: Knit Minky Mittens and Free Pattern by Gretchen Tracy

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I knit a pair of Minky Mittens by Gretchen Tracy as a birthday present for one of Kenji’s friends. She turned two in January, and of course toddlers need mittens!

The pattern includes six sizes, from Toddler to Large Adult. I knit the Toddler size using 3.5 mm needles. That means these mittens should fit for this winter and hopefully the next. These thick, warm mittens are made with two colors of worsted weight yarn, and the colourwork is done with slipped stitches. If you’ve ever been wary of colourwork and weren’t sure how to manage working two colours at once, this is a great way to start. Since the mittens use slipped stitches, you only use one colour at a time.

The ribbing for toddlers should be ~1.5″, which was about 12 rounds for me. After doing some rounds of slipped stitch colourwork with no shaping, you knit the thumb gusset. The gusset allows for better fit and movement, perfect for those grabby toddler hands! After the gusset, you put the thumb stitches on hold to knit later. Then, you continue with the slipped stitch colourwork until you start decreases in just one colour; I knit 18 rounds after the thumbhole.

For the thumb, I picked up 16 stitches in the grey yarn, then knit 13 rounds before decreasing and casting off.

Knitting for little kids is very gratifying; the pieces are so cute and work up quickly. I cast off the first mitten December 10, the same day I started it! I was able to finish the set in just three days.

The mittens use worsted weight yarn, which makes the mittens quick to knit but also very warm. The slipped stitch colourwork creates fabric that has two layers of yarn. As a result, I found the mittens to be almost windproof! I used Cascade 220 Superwash Merino in Azalea Pink and Silver Heather grey. I used the same two colours of yarn to crochet the Clover Hat by Kathy Merrick a couple years ago. This yarn is great for kid knits, as it is very soft but also machine washable.

The project page has hundreds of mittens that use all sorts of colours and colour combinations. The Minky Mittens would be a perfect pattern for variegated or striping yarn. As beautiful as those skeins are, I sometimes find them difficult to match with a project. I dislike how the yarn sometimes creates weird pooling or obscures stitch patterns. If you use colourful yarn, keep it as the contrast colour, and use a solid as the main colour.

After knitting these, Donatello also requested a pair in Adult size!

Get the free Minky Mittens pattern here!