Split Mittens pattern update :::::: Blogtober 2022 : Day 28

One of my projects for Blogtober this year was to knit myself a new pair of Split Mittens.  If you’ve been following along, you’ll have seen my progress on a short circular needle, a long circular needle and now, almost under the wire, they’re finished.  Hooray!

They look too long to be the right fit, don’t they?  I can assure you that they are, though!

Now, I know that I’ve been going on about these mittens a bit this month but apart from the fact that I’m very proud of the pattern for these fun mitts, I think they are the Most Useful accessories I’ve got (not including my socks – nothing knocks those off the top spot!), and I wish it wasn’t the case but there are going to be people this Winter who will be seriously thinking about wearing hats, gloves, mitts and scarves in their houses because they are cold but still need to be able to function in their daily lives.  Add in all the dog walkers, parents with small children, people at bus stops who want to root in their pockets or bags or use their phones, or anybody else who wants warm hands but doesn’t like the frustration of taking gloves or mitts off to get at things as well as those who might want extra layers and this pattern is just the thing – and is even great for using up stash as you can use a few strands of yarn held together to get the chunky weight this pattern requires.

Look!  You just push your hand out through the split and there’s no risk of losing your mitten and it’s still warm when you put it back on.

I’ve designed a good long cuff into this pattern too as there’s nothing worse than getting a draught up your sleeves!

“Oh, this is old news!” you might be thinking.  “You brought that pattern out years ago and it was only in one size and it’s no good for people whose hands are a different size to yours. I thought you had something exciting to tell us today!”

Well, it was indeed the case that up until earlier this week there was only one size for this pattern which meant that unless you were comfortable with changing the measurements yourself, you could only have a pair of these mitts if your hands were a similar size to mine.  Here’s my exciting announcement … my amazing tech editor, Helen, has graded the pattern for me which means that she has done all of the working out of the numbers (and she’s really good at that!) and now there are FOUR sizes of Split Mitten: toddler, child, small adult and large adult.  Woohoo!

I am delighted as it means that nobody has to do mitten maths for themselves and I am most pleased about the two smaller sizes as they mean that no small person has to suffer with a string through the back of their coat so that they don’t lose one of their mitts.  Does anybody put their gloves and mitts on strings any more?  I hated it when I was little.  I hated the feel of the string across my back and I never got used to it.  I used to cut it off and risk the fallout if I lost a glove – although I never did because I was always very careful with them – perhaps more so because the fear of having a string put back on them made me extra careful!  Anyway, all of these sizes now means that small people can wear mittens, push their hands through to pick up toys or conkers or eat a biscuit or whatever they need to do and there will be No Lost Mittens.  Hooray again!

This is the split that goes across the palm.  I did some experimenting when I first designed this pattern and a deep rib like this means that it doesn’t ride up and let any cold air in.

The yarn I used for these was Rico Essentials Mega Chunky Tweed in shade 001.  It was a 100g ball and I had 21g left.  My size is now the small adult size so you would probably get the larger size out of 100g too.  Chunky yarn makes them a nice quick knit and I’ve dragged them out a bit over the month but you could certainly have a pair reasonably quickly if you got stuck in – especially with the smaller sizes.

I’ve updated the pattern link on the Split Mittens tutorial page and even though the sizing has changed, you can still use the photo tutorial to help.  I’ll need to make one or two tweaks to the instructions there so that they match up with the new pattern but I’ll try to get that done over the weekend if I can.  The new version of the Split Mittens pattern is also here to save you going back to the tutorial if you’re in a hurry.

I’d like nothing better than to know that these are someone else’s Most Useful mitts too so do let me know how you get on if you decide to make a pair!