Want to knit a pair of mittens for yourself or anyone you know? If so, these mitten knitting patterns will be of interest. The following are the best mitten knitting patterns I’m currently aware of:

1.Selbu Mittens: Discover the Rich History of a Norwegian Knitting Tradition with Over 500 Charts and 35 Classic Patterns

If you’re hoping to find a massive book filled with mitten knitting patterns, plus historical information about European mitten design — specifically, about the historic pattern designs native to Norway’s Selbu region — this is the book for you.

The authors of Selbu Mittens decided to create a thorough and exhaustive reference book on the topic of Selbu mittens, and they did an impressive job of achieving this goal. They interviewed countless people, pursued numerous leads, and dug through records and mitten samples that had long been buried in museum archives.

They spent a mind-boggling amount of time and effort putting this book together.

So the book ended up being a sizable, hefty volume of mitten motif patterns and historic information on both the techniques and history of mitten knitting — and, by extension, knitting in general — in Norway’s Selbu region.

This didn’t end up being a dull, dry history book, though. There are 500+!!!! charted-out motif patterns for knitting stars, borders, flowers and other designs, and the book also includes helpful, relevant technical information about how mittens are constructed. If you’re either a knitting pattern designer, or an aspiring knitting pattern designer, you will probably find this book invaluable, because there are NO other books I know of that devote so much effort in communicating historic methods of mitten construction. AND, not only that, you also get 35 ready-made mitten knitting patterns designed by some of Norway’s most talented knitters and designers.

If you’re interested in knitting mittens, or in learning about the history of knitting, or in Scandinavian history, you’re likely to enjoy this book.

Learn More About Selbu Mittens:

• Click or tap here to read my full-length book review of Selbu Mittens.
• Click / tap here to shop for this book at Amazon.

2. Maja’s Swedish Mittens

If you’re hoping to knit new mittens, you have a tough choice ahead of you — because there are mind-boggling numbers of amazing mitten knitting patterns available. Maja’s Swedish Mittens offers you some truly outstanding options to consider. You’ll get the best value from this book if you’re well-versed in the stranded colorwork technique, or you’re willing to learn it. Many, but not all, of the mittens in this book are stranded colorwork designs. There are also patterns for knitting plain mittens, lace mittens, cabled mittens, striped mittens and fingerless gloves.

• Click here to see my detailed book review of Maja’s Swedish Mittens.
• Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.

3. Winter Knits From Scandinavia: 24 Patterns for Hats, Mittens and Socks

This book includes patterns for knitting mittens, socks, and hats, but most of the patterns are mitten knitting patterns. All together, you get patterns for knitting 13 different pairs of adult-sized mittens, and two different patterns for knitting child-sized mittens, if you buy this book.

The designs you’ll find in the book are all knit using the two-color stranded color knitting technique. This is basically the same type of technique as Fair Isle knitting. To knit these projects, you’ll work in stockinette stitch, changing colors multiple times per row to create the lovely Scandinavian-style pattern designs.

This author also occasionally adds additional duplicate stitch details in other colors. For example, included in the book, there’s an intriguing pair of mittens meant to look like a fox. The fox is mostly orange on a white background. You can add yellow eyes plus black details to the fox’s nose and eyes using duplicate stitch. This approach minimizes the numbers of colors you have to deal with while you’re knitting the mittens.

Design themes presented in the book include animals, butterflies, flower motifs, traditional Scandinavian motifs and others. There are designs suitable for women, men and children.

Beyond just the gorgeous patterns, this book is really beautiful to look at. I really enjoyed the photography presented in the book, too.

Learn More About This Book:

• Click here to read my full-length book review of Winter Knits From Scandinavia.
• Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.com.

4. Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Knitted Mittens

If you want to knit mittens with “personality” for yourself and everyone you know, this is the book for you. Mittens are the sole focus of this stunning hardcover knitting pattern book. The intricate designs presented in this book would all make for impressive, extraordinary gifts for your loved ones.

Learn More About This Book:

• Click here to get more details in my full-length book review of this title.
• Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.

So there you have it: Those are my current recommendations for best mitten knitting patterns in 2023. I hope you found this roundup helpful, and that you found some amazing mitten patterns to add to your pattern stash.

Related Resources:

• Knitting for the Fun of It! is one of my favorite knitting pattern books. I love it because it has easy, colorful, appealing knitting projects that are relatively quick to make — including bunches of interesting patterns for knitting fingerless gloves. If you frequently find yourself needing to use your hands for things like texting and zipping up your kiddo’s coats when you go outside, you might want to knit yourself some fingerless gloves in addition to your mittens — and this book is a fantastic choice if you need fingerless glove patterns.
• Crochet mitten patterns
• Crochet fingerless glove patterns
• Best crochet accessory pattern books
• Find our main directory of best knitting books HERE.

Posted By: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on 8-5-2023.