Lychee Mittens

You know it’s winter when it’s warmer inside your refrigerator than it was outside during the day. That was most certainly the case here in the ‘Burgh at the end of last week! Of course, that means it’s time for a new pair of mittens!


You only get one “worn” mitten since it’s impossible to photograph both of your own hands and I had no model available.

When I returned to knitting nearly 10 years ago, I jumped right in with a bulky pair of mittens on US 11 DPNs. Shazam! I generally prefer mittens to gloves anyway, and when the long-awaited shipment of Terra from The Fibre Company arrived at Bloomin Yarns, this free-with-purchase pattern was the perfect way to try this yummy yarn.

It’s a very irregularly-spun yarn, but it’s so soft and should be very warm. We have a pair of these mittens in the store as a shop sample, and we all get a chuckle out of watching knitters put the mitten on their hand. Everyone’s jaw just drops and they get a nice “happy place” look on their face. It’s awesome.



The length of time that it “officially” took to knit these mittens is deceiving. I cast on the first cuff in the car on the way to Akron for Thanksgiving and then promptly abandoned the project until we were driving around Little Rock on December 3. The first mitten was finished that day, and its mate was done the following evening.



I didn’t like having a harsh transition between the colors, so I did a bit of a jogless join technique. It’s quick and dirty and creates a line of slipped stitches up the edge of both mittens, but I decided I liked that look much better than if I hadn’t done anything to minimize the jog, so I kept on doing it.

Colors are most true in this photo

These were an enjoyable, super-speedy project in a very nice yarn. What’s not to love?

Lychee Mittens

Pattern: Lychee Mittens by Kate Gagnon Osborn
Yarn: The Fibre Company Terra
Colors: Charcoal and Mint
Yardage: Approx. 75 yards of the charcoal, 60-ish of the mint (less than 1 skein/color)
Needles: US 7 and US 8, KnitPicks Options (magic looped)
Started: 26 November 2009
Finished: 4 December 2009
Mods: Did a type of jogless join to minimize the transition between colors. Added four rounds to the hand and two rounds to the thumb of each mitten. I have puny hands, but I definitely needed the extra length!