The knitting frenzy that started back in November took me up to Christmas with a cluster of felted stars, continued over the holidays with a spate of iPod and cell phone cozies, and has carried on through January with my latest Fun Thing to Knit: sleeves and fingerless mitts.

These garter stitch mitts (from a free online pattern by Ysolda) were my most recent accomplishment. And they were exactly the kind of project I like: three nights of straightforward knitting in front of the TV, with minimal counting and finishing involved.

But best of all, despite such an ostensibly simple pattern, I learned 5 new knitting techniques while making the mitts: the provisional cast-on (a bit awkward at first, but fine once I got going), short rows (dead easy, surprisingly), grafting or Kitchener stitch (so, so, so much more enjoyable than sewing things up at the end), and a method of weaving in ends that is much tidier and more secure than my normal method of just threading the yarn around randomly on the wrong side of the work and hoping that it stays in place.

I knit the mitts on US size 8 (5 mm) needles with a 50g ball of Rowan kid classic, which is a mixture of lambswool, mohair and nylon (so my wool was heavier and my needles were bigger than the pattern called for). The Rowan kid classic was lovely to knit with, and the finished mitts are soft, stretchy and wonderfully cozy. And best of all, they look like a cross between Victorian street urchin gloves and medieval gauntlets. I like them so much, in fact, that I’ve convinced Jeremy he really wants a pair, too, and I’ve already got several more balls of yarn lined up and ready to go.

Fingerless mitts for the world!