I am so thrilled to share with you two patterns that are the perfect handmade holiday decorations. I come from a long line of craft enthusiasts – it’s in my blood – so I remember holidays being filled with so many beautiful and meaningful handmade decorations. Whether you’re looking for something to give as a gift or something to decorate with, I’ve got you covered!
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The Inspiration
The Marlow Mitten Ornament was inspired by my childhood. My mother made my siblings and me a beautiful handmade ornament every year for a very long time. Each year when I get out my decorations it’s fun to reminisce as I get out so many beautiful handmade decorations.
The Marlow Mitten Ornament is the perfect handmade holiday decoration because it’s small, quick to make and could be made using scraps of yarn left over from making a bigger project – double the memories! You can easily make the Marlow Mitten Ornament in a night or two so you can make several to hang around your house or even to give as gifts!
I have to confess that I don’t love giving gift cards as gifts. But as my nieces and nephews get older, often that’s what they’re most excited to receive. Gift cards can also be great teacher gifts and gifts for lots of other helpers in your life! The Marlow Mitten Ornament adds a really special handmade element to giving gift cards. Just attach it to the top of a present or card and slip the gift card inside.
Marlow Mitten Ornament
Next we have the Marlow Mitten Decoration! Once I had a Marlow Mitten Ornament I knew I wanted a big Marlow Mitten Decoration to hang on my front door! I love that the Marlow Mitten Decoration can stay on your door from fall all the way to spring! I have festive fall leaves and greenery in mine right now, but as we get close to the holidays I’ll be switching to festive red and green in my mitten. Once the holidays are over I’m adding snow themed decorations and keeping it up until spring!
The Perfect Gift
It’s getting to be gift giving season and the Marlow Mittens are perfect for gift giving! Marlow Mitten Decoration would be a wonderful hostess gift, or great for someone you’d like to make something handmade for, but don’t want to worry about fit. The mitten is a great decoration for anyone who celebrates any holiday – or doesn’t. Stocking stuffers are one of the things I’m always looking to check off my list. The Marlow Mitten Ornament is perfect for anyone on your gift giving list! Add a small gift card for a bakery or restaurant for adults or for ice cream or the toy store for kids and makes the perfect stocking stuffer. You could also put, Chapstick, a small bottle of lotion or hand sanitizer, a Lego mini-figure, some special candy…the stocking suffer ideas are endless! Add a cute coffee cup and a gift card to a local coffee shop and you have the perfect gift for teachers, friends, any coffee or tea lover in your life!
Marlow Mitten Ornament
The Yarn
Marlow Mitten Ornament
It’s no secret that I’m totally in love with Stroll Yarn from WeCrochet. I’ve designed a couple patterns with it, swatched with it more times that I can count and it never disappoints! It’s a dream to work with, soft and durable. It holds up well to frogging and feels nice on your skin. I love all the vibrant colors and dye techniques it comes in too. I’ve found Stroll (75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon, 231 yds/ 50g) and Stroll Tonal (75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon, 462 yds/ 100g) to have an almost identical feel and durability. The classic Stroll yarn is a beautiful, solid yarn that comes in 34 colors from bold, to soft, to classic neutrals. At $5.99 a skein, it’s a great price for fingering weight yarn. Stroll Tonal has subtle color changes within a skein, which gives it a great depth of color. Being hand painted, it is more expensive at $13.99 a hank, but is still very reasonable for a hand dyed yarn.
While the price may be more budget friendly, Stroll does not show its budget cost. It is very high quality. Unlike other budget yarns, it’s super soft. Wearing projects made with Stroll yarn against your skin is no problem. I’ve also been very impressed with how well it washes up. It dries quickly, and holds its shape super nicely. It has great loft and is color fast.
Read more about fingering weight yarn and why I love it here!
Marlow Mitten Decoration
There are so many great and affordable bulky weight yarns on the market, any of them would be perfect for your Marlow Mitten Decoration! This fall I fell in love with Brava Worsted yarn for WeCrochet so I knew I was going to love Brava Bulky and I wasn’t wrong! Just like the lightweight version, Brava Bulky is super soft, and not just for acrylic yarn, actually very soft. It’s sturdy too. I have frogged it many times and it’s held up super well. It comes in a ton of absolutely stunning colors, including heather colors. I’m particularly in love with Peacock, Dove Heather and Solstice Heather, if you need some ideas for colors!
Brava Bulky is 100% premium acrylic yarn and each skein has 136 yds/100g. The label says that it is machine washable and tumble dry. This is particularly important if you choose to use your Marlow Mitten Decoration as a centerpiece as it may get messy! I machine washed and dried some of my coffee cozies in Brava Worsted and they came out looking fabulous! At $3.49 per skein, it’s a good price for the yardage. You’ll need a little under two skeins to make a Marlow Mitten Decoration!
Other Supplies
The rest of the supply list is pretty small. The only other things you really need are the appropriate hook, a tapestry needle (these are my favorites for light weight yarn, these are my favorites for bulky) and scissors (aren’t these beautiful?).
For the Marlow Mitten Ornament I used a Clover Amour US C (2.75mm) hook. I really love the Clover Amour hooks for my smaller gauge hooks! They’re lightweight and glide well through the yarn. I like the way the hook fits in my hand and the soft grip makes them comfortable to hold.
I fell in love with and always recommend Furls crochet hooks. Their Alpha Series is my absolute favorite hook line. It’s absolutely stunning and fits so well in my smaller hands. It is one of their pricier hooks, but well worth the splurge. If you’re looking to dip your toes into Furls hooks, I love their wooden Streamline hooks too. Because of their more affordable price, I have a lot of these hooks and use them regularly. They fit nicely in my hands too, are so comfortable to work with, and glide nicely through yarn! For the Marlow Mitten Decoration you’ll need a 7.0mm hook and an 8.0mm hook.
The Pattern
Both Marlow Mitten patterns are available on both Ravelry and Etsy for you to purchase! If you’re reading this between November 11th, 2021 and October 18th, 2021 you can use the code 20MARLOW to save 20%. If you’d like to get the best discounts on all my new patterns, join my email list here!
Both Marlow Mitten patterns are tier 3 patterns. Tier 3 patterns are designed to let your skill shine. They are larger, more complex projects that will mix several intermediate stitches or skills to create a gorgeous final project.
A HUGE ***thank you*** to my amazing testers! They all did such beautiful work! This pattern was tested and tech edited to be as clear as possible. Pattern testers are an important part of the publishing process. I appreciate the time and attention they give! Thank you to my wonderful tech editor Michelle Muskett of Tales of Knots whose attention to detail makes every pattern better!
More Patterns
Popcorn Stitch Cozy – Tier 1
If you’re looking for a quick project to learn and practice the popcorn stitch, the Popcorn Stitch Cozy is the perfect pattern. This pattern also uses working in the back bump and surface slip stitch join to create a decorative seam adding the perfect detail to this totally textured cozy! Lots of photo and video tutorials included!
Ellery Hat – Tier 3
This fun, highly textured hat mixes popcorn stitches with other intermediate stitches for a beautiful texture!
Tamzin Hat – Tier 3
Take popcorn stitches to the next level with this classic hat! The inspiration for the Popcorn Stitch Cozy, you can make the Tamzin Hat, Tamzin Cowl and Popcorn Stitch Cozy and be super coordinating!
Tamzin Cowl – Tier 2
This fun cowl is a coordinating pattern with the Tamzin Hat! It’s beautiful, repeating popcorn design is the perfect complement to the Tamzin Hat or the Ellery Hat!
All of the links above will take you to my Ravelry shop. If you’d like to shop my patterns on Etsy, shop here!
Read more about my tiered pattern system here!
Learn more about the popcorn stitch with this free tutorial!
