Convert a Standard Mitten Pattern to a Fold-back Mitten

Flip top mittens can be made from any mitten pattern that you may have on hand. It's a simple matter to use a regular mitten pattern to knit convertible flip top mittens. Mittens with tops that flip back, revealing fingerless mittens underneath are warm and versatile. The mitten top will keep fingers warm when driving or walking, but having the tops fold back will make easy access to fingers for more dexterous tasks.

To make a regular mitten pattern into a flip mitten pattern, follow the directions in the original pattern until you've knit about an inch or so above the thumb opening. Purl one round and knit one round plain. Add an inch and a half of ribbing above this, and try your mitten on to make sure that the fingerless glove part of the mitten hits your hand at the right height, covering enough for plenty of warmth, and also leaving your fingers free to manipulate small things like keys. When the fingerless part of the mitten is the right height, bind off in the ribbing pattern.

Prepare the mitten for the fold back top by picking up half the stitches in the purl row on the back side of the mitten with a needle. Pick the stitches up so they won't be twisted when you knit into them later. The purl bumps will make it easy to follow straightly along a single row, and makes an easy place for knitting into, so the knitting will fold back easily and also look neat on the right side.

Cast on half of the total stitches using a long tail cast one onto another double pointed needle, and using the same needle, continue to knit the stitches you've picked up on the back of the mitten. After knitting these stitches, you should have the total number of mitten stitches on one needle. Rearrange these onto the rest of your double pointed needles, using one needle for one quarter of the stitches. If you are using a set of four double pointed needles, put all the newly cast on stitches on one needle.

Knit around on these stitches, keeping the unattached newly cast on stitches in a ribbed pattern until you are even with the inner ribbing. Knit plain after that, until your mitten is as long as it should be to start the decreasing rows, as stated by your pattern. After this, follow your pattern until you're finished knitting the mitten, just as though you made no modifications. The thumb can be finished to it's full length or left tip-less, as you desire.

I used the standard mitten pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns for the basis of the mittens in the photos, and converted them to flip top mittens just as I've described above. If your mitten pattern has stripes or other patterning, these can be modified to accommodate the flip mitten, but it is fairly easy to keep the plain half of the stitches in the pattern, with just the ribbing on the palm side being different.

Remember when making a pair of these, that they won't be interchangeable after the flip tops have been added, so care should be taken to make them a right mitten and a left mitten. That is to say, double check that on one mitten the stitches before the thumb have been picked up to be the back side of the hand and on the other, the stitches after the thumb make up the back of the hand.