Mitten

A mitten is a type of glove that covers the hand but does not have separate finger openings or sheaths. Generally, mittens still separate the thumb from the other four fingers. They have different colours and designs. Mittens provide greater thermal insulation than gloves as they have a smaller surface area exposed to the cold, but have a trade-off in dexterity.

Mittens are associated with cold weather, children's clothing, comfort and various occupational uses. In the English-speaking world, they also have a cultural association with domestic cats, as in the "Three Little Kittens".

Mittens are a common sight on ski slopes, as they not only provide extra warmth but extra protection from injury. They are also recommended as part of extreme cold weather clothing. Oven mitts are worn in the kitchen to protect the hands from hot objects.

Humans have likely used mittens for millennia, but wool and other materials used to construct clothing biodegrade quickly, which limits the amount of extant relics. From Ancient Egypt several depictions of mittens survive, and some gloves found at Egyptian pyramids have been described as resembling mittens, with the collection of egyptologist Robert Hay supposedly having contained a "linen sleeve and mitten in one piece."

Some of the earliest clearly identifiable mittens date to around 1000 A.D. in Latvia, and mittens continue to be part of Latvian national costume today. Another example is a specimen found during the excavations of the early medieval trading town of Dorestad in the Netherlands: In the harbour area a mitten of wool was discovered dating from the 8th or early 9th century. Two left-handed leather mittens found on the Mary Rose are believed to have been used for falconry, whereas in modern times gloves or gauntlets are used for this purpose. From Elizabethan times, embroidered "gauntlet mittens" survive which were made from crimson silk velvet, satin and sequins, with the thread and floss dyed in twelve different colours.

When knitting became more popular in England in the 16th century, mittens were produced at home from wool. One of the earliest known mittens for children survives from this period. The is a form of circular knitting, and modern knitters often use a circular needle.

Many people around the Arctic Circle have used mittens, including other Baltic peoples, Native Americans and Vikings.

Mittens are made from several materials, including wool, leather and fur. From the late 18th century, knitting patterns were published which allowed to inscribe poems on knitted mittens.