Mitts for gifts

Must you pet me?

These mitts can be finished in the time it takes to watch a movie or a major sporting event. Nothing bad would happen If you felt like adding beads or a picot bind off or some other embellishment.

This is not the approved manner of nose-booping.

I don’t generally like mitts that are knit flat, because a straight-edged hole for the thumb isn’t as comfortable as a thumb gusset, but the k2togs and ssks twist the hand to make a curved thumb hole that fits pretty well.

Make 2 mitts, one with the left hand pattern, one with the right hand pattern. A gauge swatch would be just as big and take just as long to knit as one of these mitts, so to me it’s just as easy to cast one on and see what happens. To change the height of the mitt, knit more or fewer hand rows; to change the width of the mitt, add or subtract groups of 4 stitches if you want to knit in the eyelet row, or add or subtract groups of 2 stitches if you want to leave the eyelet row out.

Materials: 80 yards worsted weight yarn, US6 straight needles, yarn needle for seaming

Abbreviations: k = knit, p = purl, k2tog = knit two stitches together, p2tog = purl two stitches together, ssk = slip slip knit; slip two stitches to the right needle then knit them together

Cast on 32 stitches.

Cuff:
Rows 1-3: slip 1, k to last stitch, p1 (slipping the first stitch and purling the last stitch is an EZ trick to give your work a nice finished edge, which will be seen in the hole for the thumb)
Row 4 (eyelet row): slip 1, k1, *p2tog, yo, p2* to last two stitches, k1, p1 (if you don’t want to put in the eyelets, do slip 1, k1, p to last two stitches, k1, p1)
Rows 5-6: slip 1, k to last stitch, p1

Begin hand pattern:

Left mitt:
Row 1 (front): slip 1, k1, *yo, k2tog* to last two stitches, k1, p1

Row 2 (back): slip 1, k1, p to last two stitches, k1, p1

Repeat 12 times, for 3-3.5 inches from top of cuff, or to desired length

Right mitt:

Row 1 (front): slip 1, k1, *ssk, yo* to two stitches from end, k1, p1

Row 2 (back): slip 1, k1, p to end, k1, p1

Repeat 12 times, for 3-3.5 inches from top of cuff, or to desired length

Top of mitt:
Row 1-2: slip 1, k1, p to last two stitches, k1, p1

Row 3: slip 1, k to last stitch, p1

Row 4: slip 1, k1, p to last two stitches, k1, p1

Bind off in purl. Seam, leaving room for thumb: from bottom of mitt, seam up 1.5 inch; from top of mitt, seam down one inch.

The grey mitts were done in Vanna’s Choice and came out to be 5 inches tall and about 4.5 inches wide when sewn up. The dark red mitts were done in Wool-Ease worsted and came out to be 4 inches tall and 4 inches wide.  The blue mitts were done in I Love This Cotton! and came out to be 5 inches tall and 4 inches wide. Any worsted-to-aran weight yarn should work. If you see any errors or unclear bits in the pattern, please let me know!

Through a discussion group on Ravelry I met a woman who set herself the goal of giving gifts to 40 or so chemo patients every week for a year, and seeing the lovely things other crafters contributed to the cause I came up with these mitts, trying to think of some other cute but quick project. I hope this pattern can be used to make other people happy: feel free to knit these mitts to give or sell for worthy causes, or for yourself (if you do it might be nice to give a dollar to someone (busker, collection plate, barista, grandchild, whatever) who’d like it, but that’s just a suggestion).