Roundtop Fingerless Mitts

Roundtop Fingerless Mitts by Corrine Walcher

What Is Being Made

The Roundtop Fingerless Mitts are a pair of knitted hand coverings designed to keep your hands and wrists warm while leaving your fingers free for dexterity and tactile work. These mitts feature a finished size of 5 inches unstretched around the cuff and hand, with the ability to stretch up to 8 inches for comfortable wear. The fingerless design makes them ideal for activities requiring full finger mobility while maintaining warmth in the palm and wrist areas.

Techniques Used

This intermediate-level knitting project employs several key techniques to create its distinctive appearance and structure. The mitts are worked in the round using a set of five double-pointed needles or an alternative preferred method for circular knitting, which ensures seamless construction. The pattern incorporates cable techniques, specifically braided cables that form the primary visual interest of the design. Shaping is achieved through increases and decreases, including knit-front-and-back (KFB) increases and standard decreases like knit-two-together (K2tog) and slip-slip-knit (SSK) methods. Markers are used throughout to track pattern repeats and shaping points.

Stitches Used

The Roundtop Fingerless Mitts utilize a combination of fundamental and decorative stitches. The foundation includes stockinette stitch, which creates a smooth, classic fabric base. Ribbing is featured in the palm area, providing elasticity and a snug, contoured fit around the hand. The signature element is the braided cable work, which is created using cable stitches that involve slipping stitches to a cable needle, holding them in front or back, and working stitches in a specific sequence to create the twisted, interlocked appearance characteristic of braided cables. The pattern uses standard abbreviations including knit (K), purl (P), and various cable techniques such as 2/2 left purl cross (2/2 LPC) and 2/2 right purl cross (2/2 RPC).

Materials Required

• Yarn: Approximately 130 yards of fingering or sport weight yarn is required for the sample mitts. The pattern was designed using Dragonfly Fibers Valkyrie, a 100% superwash merino yarn available in 200-yard skeins per 4 ounces. The sample shown was knit in the Winter Woods colorway, though any yarn meeting the gauge requirements will work.
• Needles: A set of 5 US size 6 (4.0 mm) double-pointed needles, or needles sized to achieve the correct gauge. Knitters may substitute their preferred method for working in the round, such as circular needles or the magic loop technique.
• Gauge: 19 stitches and 26 rows per 4 inches in blocked stockinette stitch worked in the round is required to achieve the correct finished dimensions.

Yarn Weight Compatibility

While the pattern was originally designed and tested with fingering weight yarn, the Roundtop Fingerless Mitts pattern accommodates DK, worsted, and aran weight yarns as well. Knitters working with heavier yarn weights will need to adjust needle size accordingly to maintain the specified gauge of 19 stitches per 4 inches, and may require slightly more yardage to complete the project. The flexibility in yarn weight options makes this pattern accessible to knitters with various yarn stashes and preferences.