These mittens turned out wider than expected, a bit “oven-mitt-ish” but the length is just fine. If I make these again, I will cast on 56 stitches instead of 64, but work the same number of rows. However, the thumb came out fine, so I would not change that--because the thumb is lined, it really does need to be gigantic in comparison to the body of the mitten.

Below are several blocks of text: the pattern for knitting the mitten, the directions for picking up the internal cuff, and the some notes about making the polar fleece lining and sewing it in. There are also notes about the felting process.

Pattern for mitten:

Cast on 64 sts, then work around in stocking stitch for about 2 inches before starting thumb gusset.

Thumb gusset=

Round 1: place marker#1, knit 4, place marker #2

Round 2: knit to marker#1, slip marker, make 1, knit to last st before marker #2, make 1, slip maker. Now 6 sts between markers

Round 3: knit around plain Repeat rows 2 and 3 until there are 20 sts between the markers, ending on a plain row (a row 3)

Next round: when you get to marker #1, slide all thumb gusset sts onto a holder (waste yarn works very well). Cast on 4 sts over the gap (see footnote 1) The stitch count should be corrected back to the original 64.

Work on 64 sts for an additional 30 or so rows. Place markers such that, when the mitten is flattened, one marker is centered over the thumb gusset, and the other is an equal number of stitches away on the other side.

Next round: work a decrease just before the marker, slip 1, k1, work a decrease. Because these mittens are to be felted, the decreases will never show, so just use whatver kind of decrease is easiest: k2tog is my fave. Repeat decreases at second marker.

Work one round plain.

Repeat these two rounds until 30 sts remain. Kitchener stitch the front 15 sts to the back 15 sts.

Pick up the stitches from the holder at the thumb gusset, then pick up 4 stitches through the fabric you cast on over the gap--you should have 24 sts altogether.

Work the thumb until you have added 12 rounds from pick up. Flatten the thumb so it is in the same plane as the body of the mitten and place two markers, evenly spaced on either side of the thumb

Work decreases on either side of these markers every second round, just as you did at the mitten top, until 4 stitches remain. Kitchener stitch the thumb top together.

Work in all three ends.

Your result should be as the second photo--a gigantic mitten and an object of amazement to those around you.

Ignore the teasing of your friends and family and boldly make another gigantic mitt.

Felting the mittens

Felt your mittens according to the directions in this TECHknitting blog post. I felted mine one at a time so I could grab a photo of the size difference, (third photo) but would normally felt both at the same time, to be sure they are the same size. In fact, I re-felted the felted mitt in the size difference picture to be even smaller, so the size difference was even greater than the photo shows.

The thing about felting is, it takes patience and confidence. You are the boss of your knitting, as Elizabeth Zimmermann told us all so long ago (see footnote 2) and you are the boss of your felting, too. If your mitten was made of wool (not superwash!!) it WILL felt, and it WILL be the size you need it to be if you just keep felting away with the hot water and the suds. (Although, as mine did, the mitten might shrink disproportionately--mine came out the right length, but rather wider than I would have liked. As stated in the beginning, I would cast on fewer stitches next time…)

Picking up the stitches for the
internal cuff

After felting, turn the mittens inside out.

I used a mini-latch hook (called a “knit picker”) to pick up 64 stitches around the inside of the mitten, using the same yarn I knit the mittens with. To mark the line of the pick up, I ran a line of basting in waste yarn just above where the pick up line should be, but you could just as well mark the line with tailor’s chalk or with a disappearing quilter’s marker. As I picked up each stitch, I caught it over a dpn 3 sizes smaller than I used to knit the mittens. From the outside, the look will be like a line of stitching around the wrist (photo 4)

Turn the mittens right side out, and flip the excess cuff up and out of your way, as in photo 5. Switch yarns to the dk weight superwash in a matching or non-matching color and knit another round plain. Switch to whichever kind of ribbing you prefer, and work a few more rounds. As you see, I chose 1/1 ribbing. Switch to a needle size 2 sizes smaller and work the ribbing until it is longer than the external cuff.

I like to end all ribbing with a few rounds of stocking stitch to make a curled edge, so that’s what I did, and then bound off the cuff.

Repeat on other mitten.

Lining the mitten:

I simply placed the mitten on a piece of polar fleece, then traced the mitten outline and cut exactly along the outline. With polar fleece, there is no reason to leave a seam allowance. There is more information about polar fleece here.

The liner was sewed together by hand using the buttonhole stitch (see photo number 6 but you could use any hand or machine sewing stitch you prefer. The actual process of lining the mitten and sewing it into the knitted shell is described in this TECHknitting blog post.

And that’s it! Have fun knitting.

Footnote 1: Actually, cast on 2 sts over the gap, and on the following round, pick up the 2 extra sts out of the slack, as shown in this post on TECHknitting blog

Footnote 2: Zimmermann, Elizabeth. Knitting without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes. Simon and Schuster, 1979, page 37.