Mitten Thoughts

I  hate house cleaning.  If you read this blog for any amount of time, you already know this.  I only do really deep cleans when I am trying to avoid resolving something else.  As a house cleaning strategy, avoiding does have its upside.  Avoiding the vest for the last few days means  my study (part of my giant, much too large for one bedroom) is ready for sewing.  Sewing is going to take up a big part of the day today to be sure, but while I was cleaning my bedroom,   I also unearthed this.  

I stopped at Egli's Sheep Farm on my epic adventure last year.  One of the little things I brought home were bags of scraps.  I have three bags full, naturally, in three different colours.  They are reasonably large pieces, trimmings and ends from the products Egli's manufactures at their site.  I love these bags of shearling.

I am going to try making mittens with them and what with the bag sitting right in my view this morning, I have been sitting, searching the internet for patterns and how to for making mittens.  There are several ways to do this, of course.  Some use full pieces and an extra thumb piece and some use a multi piece palm and single back piece.  I think  the pieces in my bags are going to suit the two piece palm method best, though my current plan is to use the smallest pieces to make the backs of the hand.  Backs of the hand can easily be made from the smallest of pieces, sewn together.  There are a ton of patterns and a ton of videos on how to do this from mitten sewers and leather workers.  I am hoping not to have to stress my sewing machine too much and I don't want to invest in yet another tool,  so I am going to use an awl from my kit of screwdrivers and a sturdy crochet hook to mimic the action of the fancy speedy stitcher leather workers use.  Or I should say I will try to.

I am also thinking that because of the size of my shearling pieces, I will do a knitted cuff.  I just don't have enough to make long flamboyant gautnlets.  I might be able to do that for wee Emmett with his little toddler hands, but the rest of my kiddies are getting so gosh darn big!  They are in the last days of kiddie-hood for sure.  Isaac is going to be 11, Cassie turned 7 yesterday and my sweet little boys are both 5 and in kindergarten. They are growing so fast and I am going to have to start thinking of them as the young men and young ladies that they are.

In my google meanderings, I  found an article on on New England Boiled Wool Mittens.  Lots of us can knit the mittens, but to make them wind proof, felting them seems like a great idea.  This article gives us  few tricks on sizing that are invaluable.  Of course, test knitting is the only way to truly know, so there will probably be a pair of these too one day.  

But first the more plebeian household sewing, then some clothing sewing and then some play.  Plus knitting.  Sounds like my kind of good time.