Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Felt Applique Mitten Christmas Ornament - Updated Pattern!

I've completely updated one of my first knitting patterns!  My Felt Applique Mitten Christmas Ornament knitting pattern has received a cosmetic update as well as new ideas.  I made some revisions to the pattern layout and updated some photos.  The best part is...the update includes new felt applique design ideas.  I've added patterns for felt uppercase letters in a cute font style, as well as numbers in two sizes.

My Felt Applique Mitten Christmas Ornament knitting pattern is available on Ravelry, LoveKnitting, Etsy and Craftsy.

Felt Applique Mitten Ornament - Updated Pattern!
Initially, I planned to make some minor updates to my pattern layout so it would more closely match the style of my newer published patterns.  As I was working on the updates and knitting lots of mittens with my stash worsted weight yarn, I came up with the idea to stitch felt letters and numbers on the mittens.

I love how the letters and numbers look stitched on the mittens!  There are so many ways to use the letters and numbers to make special personalized gifts.  Children love receiving gifts with the first letter of their name.  For a family gift I'll make custom mini mitten ornaments with the last name initial.  The number patterns can be used to celebrate a child's age or team number.

My pattern includes two sizes of number patterns.  The larger font size matches the letter patterns in scale and works well for one digit numbers (see #7 mitten above).  I've also included smaller, narrower numbers so you can fit two digit numbers on the front of the mitten (see the #24 mitten above).

Did I mention that all of the felt patterns are easy to print and cut out?  No resizing of patterns is necessary!

I've succeeded in using a good amount of stash yarn by knitting a bunch of mitten ornaments to give as Christmas gifts.  The #7 ornament will be for my nephew who will be seven years old by next Christmas.  The "R" ornament will be for my son.  The red mittens below were knit with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in 'Red Hot Passion'.  The light blue gray #24 mitten is the first for a countdown to Christmas mitten garland!  I'm really excited about this project.  I'm going to use as much stash yarn as possible and have the mittens be a variety of colors.

Pattern includes full set of uppercase letter & two sizes of numbers.

It's fun to stitch on a felt letter to make a personalized gift!
This month I also made a few mitten ornaments with felt hearts and another mini mitten ornament with a felt house...which kind of matches our home!  The blue mitten below was knit with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in the color 'Brite Blue'.  I used aqua colored felt for the heart and light aqua DMC embroidery floss to stitch the heart on the mitten.

Mini Mitten with Felt Heart Applique Design

The white mitten below was knit with Berroco Vintage.  I purchased my felt for these projects from SweetEmmaJean on Etsy.  I love their selection of colors and they ship very quickly!

Mini Mitten Ornament with Little House Felt Decoration

My mitten ornament pattern still includes instructions for all of the original designs: heart, house, star and snowman.  These mini mittens can be made with just about any worsted weight yarn.  Each mitten requires about 25 yards of yarn.  You will also need felt in desired colors, DMC embroidery floss or #5 pearl cotton, US size 3 & 5 knitting needles, two stitch holders, two stitch markers, a tapestry needle and a sharp embroidery needle.  And, if you would like, an old button for the heart and star designs.

Pattern includes Heart, Star & House felt applique designs.
This pattern is available on Ravelry, Craftsy, Etsy and LoveKnitting.

Thank you so much for reading!

Mary Lee
Fifty Four Ten Studio

Monday, January 4, 2016

Knitting my way into the new year!

It's possible that I did more knitting in December than any other month last year!  I was definitely motivated to knit several Christmas ornament gifts as the deadline for wrapping up gifts approached.  (Happens every year doesn't it?!)  Then, in the last week of the year I got started on gifts for Christmas 2016.  It's possible (maybe!) that I won't be in such a rush next Christmas.  :)

Here's a few photos of my December knitting projects...

I made this mini sweater Christmas ornament for a sweet girl who is like a niece to me.  I stitched on a felt heart with DMC embroidery floss and added an old button to the center of the heart. (By the way...my pattern includes directions for how to make a mini wire hanger!)

Mini Sweater Christmas Ornament with Felt Heart Applique
I liked the aqua sweater with a heart so much that I made one in red!  I used Lamb's Pride Brown Sheep worsted weight yarn to knit these ornaments.
Buy the Mini Sweater Ornament Knitting Pattern on Ravelry, Etsy or FiftyFourTenStudio.com.

For a boy who played football last fall, I modified my mini sweater ornament pattern to make a "jersey" style ornament with his team colors and his #11 jersey number.  I hear that he loved seeing his jersey number on his custom ornament.  (I'm working on writing up the pattern for this short sleeve sweater ornament with options for felt applique numbers and letters....more info soon!)


These are just a few of the small knitted gifts I made for Christmas gifts! To see all the photos check out my Instagram page.

After all the Christmas festivities were done I had time to do more knitting.  I pulled out that red yarn again and knit a few little red houses.

I used my knitting pattern - The Little House - which can be found on Ravelry, Craftsy and Etsy.

Little Red House..."under construction".
After sewing up the seams on the base structure of the house, I knit the roof in white...to represent a snowy roof.  Did you notice the cute holiday sweater napkin in the photo below?  My sweet sister-in-law gave a package of those to me last year.  Pretty much a perfect little gift for a knitter!

Roof construction in progress.
Then I stitched a felt door to the front with DMC embroidery floss. A french knot makes the perfect door knob.  I added tiny windows to each side of the house.  After the felt applique pieces were complete, I stuffed the house with a little bit of polyfil and stitched on the roof piece.  I will thread a piece of yarn to the top of my tiny red house to use it as a Christmas ornament on our tree next year.  And, I have a few more of these little red houses in progress to give as gifts next Christmas!

Finishing up a few little red houses!
The Little House knitting pattern is available on Ravelry.
I also ended 2015 having discovered Instagram...finally!  I love it!  I'm so inspired by the many talented knitters, makers, photographers and artists I have discovered on Instagram.  If you would like to see more behind the scenes photos of my knitting, follow me on Instagram @FiftyFourTenStudio.

I'm really looking forward to designing more knitting patterns in 2016!  Happy knitting and best wishes for the new year.  :)

I love how these little red houses turned out!