These mittens were made form my mother and use a color technique called Fair-isle where you work two colors at a time. The style is called a gauntlet mitten. The pattern comes from a collection of 12 gauntlet patterns, one for each month of the year. (So far, I have only made one!) This kind of pattern knitting requires a bit more concentration than I like to use for casual knitting.
After my mother passed on, I gave the mittens to a friend whose patron deity has the colors red and white.