Thrummed Mittens
Park in February
Do you suffer from cold hands? In Canada, the winter is long, and cold, and dark, and usually snowy so mittens become very important at this time of year. But, for those very cold days, or for those with VERY cold hands, sometimes regular mittens are not enough.
Thrummed mittens are perfect for days when it is -30 C and you have to be outside, but don’t need a lot of manual dexterity. What makes them special is that they are lined with sheep fleece that is knit into the mitten itself. They are puffy mittens, and they are the warmest I’ve come across. After wearing them for a while my hands got so hot that they steamed!
Several people have asked me to explain how to thrum mittens, and how to knit on 4 needles. Over the next few days, tune in to see the mittens take shape. My goal is to finish them before the snow starts to fall.
sidewalk and snowbanks in February
Materials:
- set of four 4mm double pointed needles
- aran weight wool (this wool was spun and dyed with chestnuts in Serbia, and given to me by a friend)
- clean locks of sheep fleece donated by local farmers (I don’t know the breed of sheep)
- waste yarn to hold thumb stitches
Pattern is based on Robin Hansen’s pattern from Fox and Geese and Fences. I am making a very large size for someone with very large hands, but the pattern and ideas are the same for every hand size. The trick is to knit them bigger than normal because they will be much thicker due to the fleece.
Cast On: Use your favourite method of casting on. I cast on 48 stitches using the long tail cast on method. I find it to be a very elastic way to start a project. Divide your stitches among 3 needles.
cast on and divide stitches
Cuff: Join in a round, and rib for 2-3 inches. Use your favourite ribbing.
A little math might be useful here.
- If the cast on number of stitches is divisible by 2 (if it is an even number), you can do K1 P1 ribbing.
- If the number of stitches is divisible by 3 (add up the digits in the number, and if that can be divided by 3, the whole number can be divided by 3) then you can do K2 P1 ribbing.
- If the number can be divisible by 4 (divide it by 2, and if the result is also an even number, then it is divisible by 4), you can do K1 P1 or K2 P2 ribbing.
I chose K1P1 ribbing and knit 15 rows.
So far so good…. next step is to prepare some fleece for the thrumming.
Fleece Information
(left to right) Combed Roving, Carded Fleece, Locks
Fleece comes in different forms.
- Combed rovings have fibers all aligned in one direction, it is very easy to spin, and nice to felt, but not so good for thrumming since it is hard to divide it into smaller pieces that will hold together inside the mitten.
- Carded fleece have fibers in all directions. It is spinnable, but not as easy to spin as the combed fiber. It is not so good for thrumming because it is hard to separate into small portions.
- Locks are the least processed of the three. (You need to wash them yourself usually!) The fibers are aligned, and the same length. It is easy to separate into little pieces, and it will stay together inside the mitten. If you are lucky you can get locks from a local sheep farmer. I went to see sheep shearing 2 years ago at Topsy Farm and bought half a fleece. More recently I have found farmers who are trying to give away fleeces….be careful with this, there is often a lot of plant matter involved in free fleeces.
Shearing so fast they are blurry!
Tomorrow I will start the actual thrumming. Hope you enjoyed my art for the day!
Tags: art every day, fleece, knitting, mittens, pattern, thrumming
