Thrummed mittens

I love knitting thrummed mittens.

They are light and fluffy and thick.

They have that stuffed toy kinda feeling.

 These are knitted with a merino worsted weight yarn that I had dyed a few years ago. When I spotted it in my stash a few weeks ago, I thought of thrum mitts right away.

Of course, the special part of thrum mittens is the inside. Little tufts of fibre to keep our fingers toasty warm on those bitter cold winter days.

The fibre is from Alicia, one of our alpacas. Almost a shame to use it on the inside...almost, but not quite. It's very soft and warm, so it's a good thing actually.

Do you want to make your own thrum mittens?

Look at what I have just added to my Etsy shop.

Lots of Thrummed mitten kits (and more to come).
The kits include 115g of hand dyed worsted superwash merino yarn, 55g of hand dyed merino top and the pattern to knit a pair of thrummed mittens.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth?
I made a short video to explain how to make thrums and how to insert them.

After several tries, I decided to just publish this video on Youtube. It's not perfect but I hope it's clear enough. I could have used a lighter yarn and the stitches might have shown up better but I hope it will still encourage people to knit their first pair of thrummed mittens.
 

Why not treat yourself to a little luxury?
zenitude.etsy.com

One done

Christmas 2011 gift list... WHAT? allready!
Yup, I have one gift checked off my knitting list for next Christmas.
Daughter V had told me last year that she would love a pair of thrummed mitts. During one of our visits to see our son we stopped at an alpaca farm in Stratford. I just could not resist a thrummed mitt kit in a wonderful grey yarn. I knew they were exactly what V would like.

As I was knitting these mittens, I kept looking at the roving and the yarn...I was really worried I would run out. So I took my scale out and kept weighing the yarn...just to make sure I would have enough to finish.
Well, it was so close...I did not put any roving in the last few rows on the thumbs and I have only a few meters of yarn leftover. Good thing I did not make the mitts for myself cause I would have run out for sure.

But it all turned out well. I am more than happy with these mittens. They are super soft and very very thick. They will be so warm... I just can't wait to give them to daughter V.

The grey colour is deep and rich.

I blogged here about a pair of thrummed mittens I made from myself.

Look at the difference in thickness between these alpaca mittens and my other thrummed mitts! Twice as thick.

I guess I 'll just have to knit myself another pair!



It's what's on the inside that counts

It all started with wonderful Fleece artist kit that I purchased from my LYS last month to make a pair of Thrummed mittens.
The kit has a great handpainted worsted weight yarn and kid roving dyed to coordinate.

Thrummed mitts are actually a Canadian thing. They have been around for a few hundred years in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Bits of fleece were added to the inside of knitted items to add warmth.

After several false starts (a.k.a. frogging), I finally settled on a technique to make the thrums and to thrum a stitch by following the instructions from Biscotte and Cie.
Another great tutorial can be found on Hello Yarn but I did not follow that technique to knit the thrums.

I found that it's best to make a few dozens of thrums at a time.

After knitting a 2 ½ inch cuff, I started to insert thrums every fourth stitch and every fourth row. 

Even the thumb is thrummed.(try saying that three times in a row!) Looks really great on the outside, wait till you see what's on the inside!

How crazy is that? 

Over time, the thrums will felt to eah other and to the knitted mitt to form a warm felted layer on the inside of the mitten. But to help things along, I intend to wet the mitt and start the felting process by gently rubbing with a bit of soap and hot water, just to make sure that the thrums are lined up properly and don't felt in lumps...I would hate lumps on the inside of any mitts.

I intend to make more of these. Too much fun.