The husbeast has been angling for some time for some fingerless gloves he can wear while out smoking his pipe. We both fell in love with Gandalf’s fingerless gloves from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and after seeing it a second time & looking at pictures on the internet, I came up with these.

They are truly magic mitts, as they seem to perform the same functions that Gandalf’s mitts do in the film:

You can wear them just the way they’re knit to keep your fingers warm while walking with a staff or holding a cold steering wheel.

You can fold back the fingers to keep your manual dexterity (this is what most folks remember from the movie).

You can pull in your thumb and pull them up to your elbow as handy forearm-warmers/half-sleeves - just in case a bunch of dwarves decide you need to take a long hike over the Misty Mountains in the middle of a thunderstorm!

Note: This is more a recipe than a pattern. Once you know your gauge and some general measurements, you can use whatever yarn you have lying around to make these mitts. I chose Cascade 220 because I had leftovers after making a sweater. It looks pretty close to the gauge from the film. You could, however, use any sock yarn or dk weight you have lying around. The purling shows off colour in a way we don’t usually see with plain stockinette. I’d love to try making these in handspun!