Sometimes winter seems to drag on forever, and as the days begin to get longer it’s impossible to keep from dreaming about warm spring days ahead. As soon as the winter holidays are over I start dreaming about the garden I’ll have this year. I sketch out plans while I pore over seed catalogs and garden supply websites, thinking about the lovely sharp smell of damp earth, the luscious flavor of tomatoes still warm from the sun, and the heavenly fragrance of flowers. Ahhh…. It’s lovely to dream of long, warm days and growing things, but even if the days are still cold and grey, you can “plant” these little mitts with rows of flowers to help remind you of gardens and long, warm days to come.

Even here in New Mexico, it’s still cool enough (in the evenings at least) to wear mitts…. but spring is just around the corner. This pattern is my gift to you, to help you make it through those last cool days.

The pattern includes written instructions, yarn amounts and colors I used, and a color chart for the hand (both hands are made the same). These mitts are knit in stranded stockinette in the round. I used double points for mine, but they could also be knit with magic loop or two circulars. This pattern is great for your sock or fingering weight leftovers since it uses small amounts of several colors. You can make all the flowers one color, or make each row a different color. A self-striping yarn would work great for these! Note: the chart shows the flowers in three colors; just add your own flower colors as you like. These mitts are rather short, but if you like a longer wrist just add another row of flowers before starting the thumb gusset.