Pattern is free until February 15th, 2015 (midnight MST).

Would you like to knit mittens, but don’t want to knit in the round? You want to knit a gift, but you are short on time? Then this might be your project! I designed these mittens because friends of mine suffer from chronic pain in their hands and like fast projects with large needles worked flat. Then it occurred to me, that this could also be a great and rewarding project for beginners and knitters in need of last-minute-gift.

What do you need? You need one skein of bulky weight yarn (50 - 70 yards/m) and some colorful scraps. US size 11 (8mm) needles. I recommend circular needles used as if they were two separate needles. Compared to a set of knitting needles you will get more mileage out of circulars in the long run. Using circulars instead of a set of needles also pays off with larger projects, because you will not have to carry the weight of the project, when the fabric is on a cable instead of the needles. For this project you will also need a yarn needle.

What skills are required for this project? You need to know how to cast-on, knit, purl, slip a stitch, increase (left-leaning and right-leaning), and bind-off. The increases will create curved lines for a dynamic look. The chain edge stitch (slip one stitch at the beginning of each row) will allow whip stitching the sides together with ease. For embellishment you add crosswise stitches along the ribbing, which makes for a colorful feature reminiscent of boxing gloves or kisses (like in xoxo).

Happy Knitting and Stitching!