Are warm woollen mittens one of your favourite things? If so, well today’s your lucky day. Natalie Warner’s newest pattern, released today, is not only warm and woolly, but clever and quick — a knitting quadruple treat! Have you a hot drink to hand? Settle in and I’ll tell you a bit more about the Fond Mittens, the latest pattern from our Something To Knit Together Winter Edition collection.

The Fond Mittens feature familiar design elements from the Assembly Scarf (that’s a Ravelry link) — lovely rope cables, squishy garter, alternating blocks of texture — put with rib (of the standard and broken variety) and shaken up to make a pair of mittens that coordinate beautifully with the Assembly Scarf without being too matchy matchy. The combination of the textures and our Something To Knit With Aran yarn make for impossibly squishy mittens. These have a serious cosy factor and will keep you, a friend or loved one’s hands warm all winter long.

Not only are these mittens toasty to wear, they’re a whole heap of fun to knit thanks to their interesting construction — it’s a bit of knitting magic! Each mitten begins its life as a narrow cable strip. Stitches are then picked up along the length of the strip (and there’s a tutorial to help if this is a new skill for you!) and then the whole piece is worked flat through the gusset increases. You then work the thumb flat while the rest of the hand stitches stay on hold, seam it up, and proceed to finish the mitten knitting, seaming it up along the side when you’re finished. Working the mittens flat means that, as with the Assembly Scarf, there’s actually surprisingly little purling to be done to achieve the mittens’ terrific texture. I have to admit, I had a private chuckle during our first Something To Knit Together Zoom call last week as a few of you were discussing the pitfalls of garter in the round — Natalie’s clever construction neatly avoids the need for it!

The Fond Mittens pattern comes in four sizes and includes both written and charted instructions. With the exception of the smallest size, all sizes use three skeins of our Something To Knit With Aran yarn, and all three of the Something To Knit Together kit options include yarn for these little beauties. (You can, of course, purchase yarn separately, but do remember that if you’ve purchased the eBook, you have a discount code!) And while I in no way advocate frantic last minute gift knitting (because knitting should be fun!), it is perhaps worth mentioning that these knit up quite quickly … I’d venture to guess you could comfortably complete a pair in a weekend.

If you’ve already purchased the Something To Knit Together Winter Edition eBook, your pattern update should be with you soon. Do lookout for the details of our next knitalong Zoom session in your update email! And of course, if you’d like to join the fun, it’s never too late! You can get your copy of the eBook in the online shop. When you purchase, you’ll instantly receive the Fond Mittens and Assembly Scarf patterns, accompanying photo tutorials, plus three more patterns delivered to your inbox in January. You’ll also receive a discount code for our yarns valid through the duration of the club and details for our Something To Knit Together Zoom calls so you can join me, Jen and Natalie in knitting together in real time!

The knitalong thread is already open over in The Knitalong Hub, so do cast on and join us today!