No knit-knit mittens
I'll admit I hate to throw away old sweaters and other pieced of knitting. So much time and energy is spent knitting something it deserves a long life. When I found this pattern for no knit-knit mittens I was thrilled! If your sewing skills are sharper than your knitting, this is the pattern for you.
Take an old sweater and cut the arms off; this will form the base of your mitten. Sew one end of the tube closed, rounding off the end. This will be the top of your mitten. You should have a long tube with one closed end. Next, cut half way up the mitten tube from the open end of the tube. This will make the opening for the thumb flap. You can see the thumb flap in the picture to the right. From another piece of the sweater, or another sweater if you want a contrast, cut a U shaped piece of material twice the length of the slit you just made. The U shape should be at least 4" wide if not wider depending on the size of your hand.
Fold the top of the U shape together and stitch creating a pocket for your thumb. The length of the thumb will vary, again depending on the size of your hands, but it should be roughly half the size of the U shaped flap. Now set the thumb sleeve into the hand slit and sew all the way around.
Finally, stitch along the bottom of the mitten to prevent the knitting from unraveling. You've now made knit mittens without knitting a stitch and given your old sweaters new purpose.
