Fingerless mittens

I tried a couple different styles, including knitting on double pointed needles but settled on a simple method using straight needles where you knit them flat and then stitch them up. It's easy, knits up fast and makes for pretty good fingerless mittens.

You can use Number 8 or 9 needles. Cast on 28-30 stitches of worsted weight yarn and knit two or three inches of ribbing. I like the look of only using knit stitches but alternating knits and purls would work just as well. When you have six inches or so of the body knit another inch or two of ribbing and bind off.

To stitch them up, fit the glove to your hand, starting at the finger end works best for me. Use a tapestry needle or the big ones yo find in knit shops and do a simple whip stitch down to where you'd like the thumb to be. I weave the yarn through the knitting to get it around the thumb opening and then, again fitting it to your hand, start stitching again and go down to the wrist. Simple as that. You can vary the stitches, make them fair isle, whatever you'd like.

Mine are working well for the mild, but still often cold, weather we have here in the San Francisco area. As with most knit gloves and mittens they wear quickly on a bicycle. I'm planning to stitch leather palms on a pair soon and see how that helps with the bicycle wear and tear.

What I've learned about knitting

Mobius scarf

So, I've been knitting for a few months now and while it isn't compelling to have a conversation about yet, it is somewhat compelling to do once you start. Likely it's simply lingering "guyness" that prevents me from striking up knitting chatter.

Thus far I have learned that it's a pleasant activity that both takes practice and rewards it. The learning curve isn't steep but as noted before it can seem so at first. I've knitted a scarf and simple hat for my toddler daughter and a sort of hood/scarf for myself. After being shown the ultra basics at the knit shop in something like five minutes, I've been able to sort out rib stitching, purling and binding off on my own. I've also seen that while there are a multitude of variations they all essentially stem from those same basic knit and purl stitches.

It's become evident that knitting is very useful and I'd say in terms of DIY, self sufficiency, prepping and even survival, there is no good reason to not know how to at least make a scarf, something simple that can easily be turned into almost any other item with simple blanket or whip stitching. If you are blessed or cursed with a job that has a lot of wait time, maybe security or rendering images, something that requires a person to sit and be present and awake but not actively engaged in much for even a half hour at a time, you might consider using that down time to hand make things you need, can trade for things you want or need, or to stretch those gifting dollars around the holidays. Though, knitting things like blankets and sweaters is not cost effective unless you happen to have a ready supply of wool or yarn, most of us don't and won't in the foreseeable future.

Bottom line, it's no worse a time suck than video games and the usefulness of the end product goes a long way to easing the guilt of what would otherwise be lost or idle time.