Based on my personal experience and this is IAW MoBob's advice about safety, look at Grainger's Catalog #403; page 2457; bottom of the page, at Glove Clips. They come as a double clip (my preference) or as a belt clip. Colors are lime or Black. Item nr's are E5404 and E5405 and they sale for $5.01 ea. www.grainger.com

I have and do use the double clips and like them very much.

Usual discaimer, i have no affiliation with Grainger.

I have a few. Would you like one? I have no use for them.

Thanks, sybert, for the generous offer. I've placed an order already, so I think I'll be OK. Besides, hopefully the weather will finally warm up! But then that means I'll have to make sure to keep my gloves together for next winter.

Bingley, I intended to make an idiot string for mitts this winter, Bing, but since I was hibernating it fell off my radar. Thanks for the reminder. Ideally I'd like to have each mitt be clipped to the string that goes through my sleeves. These clips could work very well. Thanks for the idea!

Most kids clothing stores in this neck of the woods sell little elastic straps with clips on them. They're like tiny suspenders to clip the mitts to coat sleeves. One would probably work well enough to keep a pair together, but they'd be a bit dangly and there'd probably be more chance that you could lose one since there is no actual ring to security them.

One of the advantages of the clips on mitts, in my experience, is that they're not very heavy duty plastic and will brake, or at least bend and release, under pressure. Maybe hit your local second hand store and see if they have a pair of kids mitts with the clip still attached. Might cost a couple of bucks?

I'm not positive,but the device you are talking about is, I believe, the basis for the term: dummy cord.

Something on this page would work

http://www.seattlefabrics.com/snap%20hooks.html

Idiot mittens...lol The artic mittens issued in Alaska had the string that ran from mitten up your arm, across your shoulders and down the other arm to that mitten. You could take off one and not worry about losing it or dropping it.

Dummy cord was para cord tied to a weapon or gadget so you wouldn't lose it.

You can run the mitten strings up through your parka sleeves, which works OK as long as you are wearing your parka all the time, as when it is very cold. If you don't run it up the sleeves, but have the string outside over your shoulders, then it is always catching on things, which can be a hassle.

In many situations, you will often want to shed the parka when working hard, like when humping up a big climb. In that case, the string through the sleeves also becomes a pain in the rear. You have to take your parka off, fuss with the string to put your mittens or gloves back on, then do the same thing when you get to the top in the wind and you want your parka on again.

An overall better approach, in my opinion, is to have a short loop attached to each mitten and put the loop around your wrist. When you need to use your fingers, you just slip the mitten off and let it hang by the loop. When you shed your parka, it is easy to take the mitten and loop off in one motion. If you don't want to wear your gloves at all for a bit you can clip the loops to a small 'biner on your pack so you don't loose them. Some gloves and mittens, like the last ones I got at REI, come with the loops already in place with a cordlock for easy adjustment around your wrist.