In the chill of winter, it’s annoying to have to take off your mittens to make a call on your iPhone or adjust your music or surf the web–since the iPhone touch screen only works when your actual finger touches it.
To solve the problem of cold hands, I’ve invented Slittens, a pair of mittens with a slit at the right index finger to allow you to poke one finger out and tap at your iPhone screen. (This works for the iPod Touch too, of course!)
To knit your own pair of Slittens, pick any knitting pattern in the round for mittens. The ones in the photo were made with the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd from Interweave Press.
When the right-hand mitten gets up to your knuckle of your index finger, cast off 4 stitches right where the index finger sits inside the mitten. Knit the rest of the way around in pattern. When you get back around to the cast off stitches, cast on 4 stitches and then knit the rest of the way around in pattern again. Then continue to follow the pattern normally.
That’s it! You should end up with very normal-looking mittens except with a little slit at your right index finger.
If your Slittens are made using very thick yarn you may want to reduce the number of cast-off stitches to 2 or 3; likewise if your Slittens are made with lighter weight yarn, you may want to increase the cast-off stitches to 5 or 6.
