The Single Jig Mittens are the third pattern in my ebook/series All the Jigs and Reels.

A lady I knew as a child always knit her mittens in ribbing, usually in brightly colored stripes, and I recall how they hugged my hands on the coldest of days. These are in memory of her and the many mittens she gave to the children of our small village.

The Single Jig Mittens feature longer cuffs for closing out the gaps between coat sleeves and arms/wrists. They’re ribbed and cabled for warmth and to fit no matter what task you have to accomplish on a blustery winter’s day.

Single Jigs, like standard jigs, are in 6/8 time with a slight change in emphasis to the tune. Hum a few bars of “Pop, Goes the Weasel”; that’s a single jig. To represent the single jig I choose a 6 strand cable, very familiar to anyone who has looked at cable patterns before. I’ve seen it listed various places as “Saxon Braid”, “Celtic Braid”, “Complex Cable” and I’m sure others that aren’t coming to mind.

The mittens are knit cuff to tip, with a gusset insert for the thumb sts. When the gusset is complete, the thumb sts are placed on hold and the mitten is continued to the top. Once done the mitten, you’ll return to the thumbs sts to complete the thumb. I have included charted and written instructions. Please note the instructions to complete the thumbs are only written.

Additional notions:

• cable needle
• st holder I use a length of crochet cotton; makes trying on to check length easier than a solid holder
• tapestry needle

Skills required

• knitting in the round
• cable knitting
• increases: knit into front and back of stitch (Kfb)
• decreases: knit 2 together (K2tog), & purl 2 together (P2tog)
• picking up sts (around the thumb)

Update: With all the important discussions about accessibility going on, I’m making it a priority to go back through my patterns and add low vision pdfs to them. I’m using the guidelines set out by the Accessible Patterns group. A new Low Vision pdf has been added to this pattern’s file. This new pdf includes: all black text,
sans serif 22pt font, photo(s) captioned, pattern is left justified, and use of bold type in place of italics. All directions are fully written out line by line. This pattern can be completed without using any of the charts included.