A quick guide to making plain mitts for the whole family, or a starting point for a truly unique accessory that incorporates your own favourite stitch? This pattern is both!

My Favourite Mitts are a standard construction worked from the cuff to the fingers, with a gusset for the thumb and a few extra stitches inserted between the thumb and the hand for more freedom of movement.

If you’ve never made mitts before, the instructions will walk you through the steps from choosing a yarn and determining your size to the actual knitting, giving tips for creating neat edges and a nearly invisible join where the thumb and the hand meet. If you already carry a pair of mitts in the pockets of each coat and get easily bored when working from a pattern: that’s fine, too! Let your imagination run free and use the schematic and stitch counts as a basis to incorporate lace or cable panels or other embellishments.
Mitts are a great, portable project that takes hardly more than 50g of yarn, which is also a good size to make use of leftovers or swatch for a larger project.

The pattern includes:

• Instructions for 7 sizes from child (approx. 4 years) to large adult
• A detailed schematic with stitch and row counts for all sizes (which lets you customize the mitts for your own measurements)
• Options for a shorter or longer ribbed cuff
• Tips on yarn choice
• A discussion of suitable cast-on and bind-off methods
• Photo tutorials and links for the techniques used

Skills required
The pattern assumes you are familiar with knitting and purling in the round over a small circumference, working twisted stitches and basic increases and decreases, and picking up stitches.

Yarn
You will need 75 (85, 100, 120) (140, 165, 185) m or 82 (93, 109, 131) (153, 180, 202) yards of fingering to sport-weight yarn.
Note that this amount will vary if your gauge is different from the one suggested or if you make alterations.

Notions

• Stitch markers
• A length of scrap yarn
• Darning needle

For inspiration and chat about everything related to mitts, join us at the Fingerless Glove Fanatics. We would love to see your progress and admire your FOs!

Thank you to Jo Torr for technical editing.