Making Mittens

I hate having cold hands!  One thing that always freezes my fingers to the point that I could cry is scarping the ice off my cars windows.. so I decided to felt an ice-scraper mitt; a thumbless mitten with the handle of the ice-scraper going through to the inside where you hold it and keep warm.  I didnt take process pics, but made 2 at once by using a double resist which I cut in half part way through felting.. giving me 2 scraper mitts

I cut a slit at the end & 'healed' the edge as I was felting.. this is where the scraper goes

 I decided to give these to my aunties for Christmas.. hope they liked them (I havent seen them yet)  They should be good for ice-scraping as they wont get wet.

Now I needed to make for myself.  Oraigionally I planned to make a thumbless mitt, but I have I've always fancied a pair felted mittens that I can wear out and about.. last time I tried it turned out like a felt boxing glove lol (I'd used way too many layers!).  Also I wanted the thumb to be positioned slightly to the front rather than at the side..  Gary solved this for me very simply, he pointed out that I can turn it slightly as Im working the felt so the thumb is where I want it.

covering the double resist with nice golden orange merino

I used 3 layers.. so it would be thick and warm, but still flexible

On the 2nd and 3rd layers I added blue for the hands
keeping the orange clear for the wrists

For surface decoration I used a pink and yellow silk cap that I dyed a while back
and some pretty variegated finger roving brought back from Wonderwool Wales

Wetted and rolled, just about to cut them apart

healing the edges

After working the left mitt look at how much it shrunk after it came off the resist

Finished front and back

Generally I am really happy with these.. I shall tweak the resist next time to make the finger area slightly narrower.  When I made these I didnt want them to restrict my fingers, but I think there is just a little too much room there.  I may wet them and work the fingers a bit more yet. 

Safe to say there will be more mitten making in the future :)