Sunday 15 January 2012

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 :)

10 comments:

Heather Woollove said...

Hahaha...we are always going back and forth, creatively, aren't we Deborah??
...and the orange...be still my heart!
I really like the shape of your thumb. I will have to get a closer look at your resist sometime! The embellishment is very pretty, too.
Yes...Edward Gorey is amazing, isn't he?
...and the Felt exhibit was on a perfect Fall day that year, so we couldn't have taken prettier 'outdoors' photos if we tried! :) XXO--

Terriea Kwong said...

Love the color combination, orange, blue and the silk cap.

Charlotte said...

Inspired, I love the scraper mitt. I don't have the patience for wet felting mittens, too fiddly around the thumb.

Patty Biermans said...

The shape may not be to your satisfaction but the color is béeautiful!!! hugzz...peebee

FeltersJourney said...

Thanks Peebee, Charlotte, Terrie & Heather :D My hands were lovely and warm scraping the thick ice off the car this morning :) x

Heather I shall have to rummage and find the resist again - I put it away before Christmas... where I have no idea! I can see us tip swaping.. my thumbs for your cuffs he-he

Charlotte glad you are inspired :) Have to say though when I actually set to making the mittens the thumbs were nowhere near as fiddly as I thought they might be.

Cash en Els said...

I always love to see how much the felt will shrink ;o))
The colors are beuatifull!

FeltersJourney said...

Thanks Cash en Els :)
I know what you mean about the shrinkage.. I love to see before & after.
Its funny how you get used to working with shrinkage, I used to really puzzle over it - now I just get on with it (you watch I`ll have a shrinkage disaster now lol)
x

Sonnentaucher Filzlinge said...

Lieben Dank für den Kommentar,
deine Filzlinge sehen super warm aus, orange benutze ich viel zu selten, schöner Verlauf....
LG Jana

Unknown said...

They turned out Beautifully Deborah, i love the colors and the placement of the thumb, I havent tried mittens but i was always thinking that the thumb would be in the wrong place on a resist. Yours are excellent :) xo

Tracy Markey said...

what a great idea :) i've never tried mittens before either but now i'm inspired!