Flock Flight colourwork mittens knitting pattern

Flock Flight mitts are a pair of colourwork mittens designed to keep hands warm whilst walking and working outdoors.

The Flock Flight Mitts have a double cuff with corrugated ribbing on the outside and plain ribbing inside. The front and back of the hand are decorated with stranded colourwork, with a repeating V-shaped motif on the back and a simple 1x1 colourwork on the palm. The mitts are finished with ribbing at the fingertips, which can be folded back for dexterity or left long for extra warmth.

My West Country collection of knitting patterns

This knit design is part of From This Land, a capsule collection of 5 knitting patterns, using undyed yarns from local farms in the South-West of England. Each design is inspired by a visit to the farm the yarn is from. 

For the Flock Flight Mitts, I worked with Bec Briar of Honeywood’s Flock in West Somerset, who keeps a small flock of Portland, Shetland, and Icelandic sheep on her sustainable smallholding. The mitts combine a creamy Portland yarn from Bec’s flock with a beautiful Jacob yarn commissioned from neighbouring Exmoor fleeces.

Design inspiration

The idea for this knitting pattern was inspired by an afternoon sitting on a hillside among Bec’s sheep, watching swallows swoop overhead. Their outstretched wings and distinctive V-shapes mirrored the sheep in the fields below, a perfect harmony of sky and land that became the stranded colourwork motif on the mitts. 

About the collection

Thanks to South-West England Fibreshed for partially funding the development of this collection, which also includes a stranded colourwork tank top, a textured scarf, a cabled cardigan and a felted hat.