One day after work, I showed a fingerless mitt I was working on to a couple of coworkers. One of them asked drolly, “How do you know which hand the mitt goes on?” I was of course thinking that it’s worn so that the design is on the back of your hand. His next question: “Why don’t they put left and right on mittens so you know which hand to wear them on?” Immediately I wondered whether there existed any patterns indicating left and right.

Racing home, I went online and looked at the existing patterns. There may have been just one children’s pattern with left- and right-hand labels at that time. I was so surprised that there weren’t more! This design is the result of that discussion.

This pattern is charted so that motif is centered on back of hand and includes charts for both upper and lower case L and R.

Fun fact: when hands are turned palm side facing up, the “arrows” point to the right on the right hand and to the left on the left hand.

Skills Needed: Working with two colors; working in the round; reading colorwork charts; cable cast-on; trapping floats; increasing; decreasing; backward loop cast on.

Width approx. 7½” (19 cm); length approx. 7½” (19 cm). Size can be adjusted by using larger or smaller needles and gauge.