My first personal yarn project of the year is a pair of knit fingerless mittens for myself, that I’ve had in plan for a couple of years. Time to bite the bullet!
As I have mentioned before, I’m a reluctant knitter. I find it very stressful and slow, and much less portable than crochet. However, sometimes it is the right craft for the end result that you need.
Yarn Choice
A couple of Christmases ago, my sister gifted me some gorgeous yarn from The Grey Sheep Co. that’s much nicer than anything I would buy for myself. This is their “Hampshire” yarn, a blend of 98% wool and 2% Alpaca in their “Perfect Storm” colourway.
This lovely shade is one of “my” colours (thank you, Sis), so I knew I wanted to make myself something to wear. I think I’ve now settled on how to make the best use of the two weights of yarn.
Project Ideas
With the DK, I knew I wanted to make one of my knit ear-warmers. I have perfected a knit pattern that uses short rows and ribbing for this, and have made several. I’d then like to make the rest of the DK into a pair of boot toppers. I think I should be able to rustle up a pattern with 2×2 ribbing and stocking stitch to match my ear-warmer.
I’ve decided to use the 4ply to knit fingerless mittens to match my ear-warmers (mittens because I’m not mad enough to attempt to knit fingers). I should have plenty of the 4ply left too – enough to make a scarf although I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do. Maybe a tippet? I’d rather use it as a stripe in a simple grey jumper, but I’m not sure I can face another knit jumper, especially not in 4ply.
I’ve now got the point where I really just need to get on with these and stop second-guessing myself about maybe coming up with a better idea, or not having enough time. If I ever want to wear this lovely yarn, I’ve got to just do it! And just because it’s the way I am, I’ve decided to get the harder mittens out of the way first. At least the ear-warmer is a known quantity.
Fingerless Mitten Pattern
I’ve had a specific pattern lined up for the mittens for a while. I can work in the round, I just much prefer not to, and don’t want to have to buy any needles, so a pattern worked flat and then seamed was what I went searching for. I found the perfect thing in Lorelei Designs’ adaptation of a pattern from 1885 – find it on Ravelry via my Fingerless Mittens Ravelry project.
Although I’d find it far easier and quicker to crochet some gloves, I want these to look like a set with my ear-warmer. Plus the finer, stretchier fabric that knitting creates is, to my mind, more suitable for the thin, close-fitting gloves I prefer to wear and – sacrilege to say it, I know – it looks a bit less “handmade” than crochet and I’m hoping to wear these in public.
I like the un-fussy design and longer wrist on these mittens, and that the thumb is quite long too.
My plan is to not to add the contrast colour and just continue in the main colour, and not to add the embroidery. I think they would look rather fab with grey contrast edges and embroidery, but I prefer to wear plain things myself with not a lot of detail, and again, I want it to match the ear-warmer.
Having begun at last, I’m really happy with the look of this yarn in the 1×1 rib. The yarn is a pleasure to work with: it doesn’t tangle or split, and the fabric it creates is delightfully springy. I think I’ve managed to find an excellent combination of yarn and pattern to create some gloves out of which I should get a lot of use.

I will have lots of yarn left so perhaps I could make another pair maybe with the contrast details. The Grey Sheep Co. offer this 4ply yarn in beautiful coordinated mini skein sets too, which would be ideal if you wanted to make several of these mittens with contrasting details.
The pattern itself is very clearly written. I love that the original 1885 pattern is also included with the modern adaptation. I get a kick out of how no-nonsense vintage patterns are in their succinctness and confident assumption that their reader can extrapolate from the complete but minimal information provided – although this is not something I emulate in my own pattern writing!
Keeping Motivated
Alongside the fact I just don’t enjoy knitting, the particular problem for me with knitting with a fine yarn like this is that it grows so slowly! I can do half a dozen rows and the piece looks no different. This makes it very hard to rouse up the motivation to do just a row here or there – which is actually what I need to do to have any hope of finishing – because I never have time for a long knitting session.
The answer for me is one I’ve relied upon before when struggling with motivation to finish a project: a ‘dashboard’ showing my progress. I’ve used my Excel spreadsheet to calculate roughly how many rows I should be completing a day to get both mittens finished by the first week in March. I set the overall target date based on a realistic but slightly ambitious number of rows per day. The dashboard then also shows me target dates for key milestones, such as starting the thumb shaping and casting on the second mitten.

Of course, not all rows are of equal length and therefore the daily targets are not really equal, but this is a motivational tool, not a scientific representation of the project.
This dashboard gives me a fairly achievable aim for each day, so I can focus on that, rather than the overall task of finishing the mittens which seems overwhelming. The fact I can see that I have already achieved a not insignificant fraction of the whole is massively motivating compared to just looking at an unfinished mitten and knowing I have “a lot” still to do. Very satisfyingly, the benefit and progress created by completing just one or two rows is immediately visible. Whereas working one row makes no visible difference on the mitten itself, each and every completed row has an instant visible on the dashboard when the graphs change.
I have set up a shortcut and added it to the ‘dock’ on my iMac, so that just a single click brings up the pattern, this spreadsheet and my Ravelry project. This makes it super easy for me to just quickly do a row or two when I have five minutes.
The dashboard also helps make sure I am focussing on the overall completion of two mittens, otherwise the risk is that I will be so relieved to finish the first glove that I will find it hard to put myself through another.
Ideally I’d knit both the mittens at the same time on the same needles – my preferred way of knitting any paired items like sleeves, etc, to ensure they are identical. But I didn’t want to cut my yarn in two, and having two yarn balls attached to my needles would make it too impractical to take anywhere. Starting the second of a paired item can often feel like starting from scratch, so this is a great tool to remind you that you’re actually over halfway.
Progress at 16th January
Thus far, having this dashboard absolutely has kept my nose to the mitten grindstone, and I’ve reached the point of increasing for the first thumb on target.

Progress at 26th January
I’ve finished the increases for the thumb on the first mitten, and am about the split the thumb off from the hand of the mitten.

Really pleased I’ve managed to keep going on this, and my spreadsheet is 100% the reason for this. It’s been getting harder to meet the daily row rate as the rows are longer here, but the next few rows are much shorter, so it should all even out!

I love the way this pattern is coming out so much, I want to make two more pairs for myself as my indoor mittens. I wear fingerless mittens all year round except for a couple of weeks in high summer! Along with slippers, they are essential to my comfort and sanity in a cold house (although we’ve been much warmer this winter now we’ve had our heat pump installed – yay!) Already thinking about what yarn I’d like to use…
Progress at 5th February
It’s really hard for me to keep up with this level of knitting every day, but I’m doing it! I’m into the second mitten now.

Progress at 12th February
I’m so convinced I want to make this pattern again, possibly repeatedly, that I’m actually thinking of buying some new knitting needles. These ones I inherited are a little too long at 30cm, as well as being very crooked (which I don’t really mind). I’m considering even something as extravagant as Knit Pro Nova Cubics as I think they might solve a couple of knitting problems for me, and I have a little Christmas money to spend. I do know enough not to swap needles in the middle of this project though.

See my Ravelry Project for these Mittens for the pattern information.
Other Fingerless Mitten Patterns

For much quicker and easier knit fingerless mittens, see my free pattern that is part of the Quick Knit Chunky Winter Set I made a few years back.

For an easy crochet pattern for fingerless mittens, see the Crochet Fingerless Gloves I made for my other half (and then make them for yourself in a more cheerful colour!)
Fingerless mittens are also something often appreciated by rough sleepers if you get the chance to make an extra pair.
A message from one homeless outreach for our #mittenmission friends “Mittens came We had a rush on them – gave a pair to one of our guests and now everyone wants them 😁” Mittens appreciated and needed If you can knit or crochet please make some Sue Dm 4 addresses www.masato.co.uk/collections/…
— Beanies Masato (@beaniesmasato.bsky.social) 6 December 2024 at 10:35
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