Kids Love Cocoa

Kids Love Cocoa Mittens by Elena Maltseva

What is Being Made

Kids Love Cocoa is a downloadable knitting pattern for children's mittens featuring festive stranded colorwork design. These mittens are sized to fit children, measuring approximately 8 cm wide and 21 cm long when knitted with the recommended yarn and gauge. The pattern offers flexibility for creating different sizes by adjusting yarn weight and needle size accordingly.

Knitting Techniques Used

This intermediate-level pattern employs stranded colorwork as its primary decorative technique. Stranded colorwork, also known as Fair Isle knitting, involves carrying unused yarn colors across the back of the work while knitting with the active color. The pattern includes specific instructions for managing longer floats—the strands of yarn carried inside the mittens—using a preferred method to prevent snagging and ensure even fabric tension. The pattern provides two different chart options for the colorwork design, allowing knitters to choose their preferred aesthetic or mix and match charts between the two mittens.

Stitches and Construction

The mittens are constructed using fundamental knitting stitches worked in the round. The pattern begins with ribbing using smaller needles to create an elastic cuff. The main body consists of 50 stitches and 56 rows of stockinette stitch as the foundation for the stranded colorwork. Knitters follow colorwork charts from right to left, a standard practice in knitting pattern reading. The pattern structure allows for customization of mitten length and width through yarn and needle selection.

Materials and Specifications

• Yarn: DK weight yarn totaling 125 yards (120 meters) / 40 grams. The pattern requires three colors: background color (80 yards / 73 meters / 29 grams), contrast color 1 (50 yards / 45 meters / 18 grams), and contrast color 2 (2 yards / 2 meters / 1 gram for small details)
• Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) needles for ribbing and US 1½ (2.5 mm) needles for the main body
• Additional Tools: Tapestry needle for adding small embroidered details
• Gauge: 15 stitches by 14 rows equals 2 inches (5 centimeters) in stockinette stitch

Yarn Weight Flexibility

While the pattern is designed for DK weight yarn, Elena Maltseva provides guidance for creating mittens in different sizes. Fingering or sport weight yarn will produce smaller mittens, making them suitable for very young children or those with smaller hands. Conversely, worsted weight yarn paired with larger needles will create larger mittens for older children or adults. This flexibility makes the pattern adaptable across a wide range of ages and sizing needs.

Pattern Format

Kids Love Cocoa is provided as a free, downloadable PDF pattern, making it immediately accessible for knitters. The pattern was designed by Elena Maltseva in December 2023 and includes visual references from niemiecp on Ravelry, demonstrating completed mittens in various colorways.