I’m so pleased to announce that my first booklet for Leisure Arts, “Texting Mitts”, is available as an Ebook on their website, it will be also available as a print booklet in Jo-Ann stores sometime in February.

My first ever published design was a pair of fingerless mitts for Red Heart Yarn in October of 2009. So it is fitting that my first ever booklet would be fingerless mitts as well. I love making fingerless mitts. They are a wonderful quick project for gift-giving and a useful item to have in your pockets for chilly days.

I had a great time working on this booklet. Kept me very busy throughout May, June and July of 2012, in a frenzy of creativity and crocheting. In fact this effort has inspired me to create more fingerless mitt designs in the future.

The booklet has 8 different designs for fingerless mitts and sells for $9.99, which comes out to about $1.25 a pattern. Patterns range from basic beginner to intermediate skill levels. All the designs are worked in sock/fingering weight yarns for warmth without bulk. Leisure Arts has even included links to helpful videos on their website for help with or review of many of the techniques.

All but 1 of the designs in this booklet are worked from the cuff up, which gives you the option of making the hand/finger area longer if desired.  Many of the styles include thumb gussets to give greater coverage for those that live in chillier climates.

One of the wonderful advantages of wearing fingerless mitts is they can actually help you avoid injury to your hands when typing, texting or even crocheting. Keeping your hands warm is a great way to prevent muscle strains from repetitive motion.

I love all the designs in the booklet but my 2 favorites are the Small V-stitch Wristers (shown on the front cover) and the Staggered Cross Stitch Mitts. The main reason these are my favorites is because of the lovely stretch that the stitch patterns give to the fabric.

When I’m out and about I prefer my mitts to have a longer palm section that nearly covers my pinkie finger, making it easy to operate the touchscreen on my smart phone, but still keeping my hands warm in our cold weather. I sometimes wear glove liners under my mitts when the temperature really drops.

At home I wear my lacy fingerless mitts in the house, especially on winter evenings. Living on a mountain it gets very cold, but I’m cozy under an afghan with my hands in my mitts and my fingers free to crochet, knit, read a book or give kitty and doggie scritches as needed.