Yesterday I spent the day working at the MS Walk near my hometown. It’s a great fundraiser, and I really enjoy helping to organize the event each spring. But there is one thing that is not-so-great almost every year… the weather. Doesn’t matter if the weekend before was beautiful (it was), or the weekend after an absolute delight (it probably will be). Without fail, come Walk weekend, it will be cold, windy, possibly raining, or even hail and a mini-blizzard. This year we had a wonderful combo-pack including a little bit from all of the above. Understandably, much of the conversations after the event were about the weather, and someone was telling me how sad she was that she hadn’t thought to bring her thrummed mittens. Since I had never heard of thrummed mitts before, I had to ask what she meant. Her eyes lit up and she said that they are truly The. Warmest. Mittens. Ever.
I am told that thrumming is an East Coast tradition where raw fleece is knitted directly into the mitten. This gives it an incredibly warm lining that is even water resistant, and keeps your fingers toasty and snug in any weather. The process gives the mitts a distinctive appearance, with little “v” or heart-shaped dots spaced regularly across the whole thing.
They may not look that different from your average mitten...
<image source>
... but check out the inside! How could your fingers be cold when they are all snuggled into this?
<image source>
There are several colour options to choose from, I particularly like these brown/beige ones:
Nice and neutral
<image source>
Now it just wouldn’t be fair if the adults in the house had toasty warm hands, and the wee ones were left shivering… so of course there are thrummed baby mittens. (all together now… awwww)
Cute and cozy thumbless mitts for baby
<image source>
I know what you are thinking “Gee thanks Jenn, but where can I get some of these super fleece-powered mittens for myself?”. I found these ones at the abitofthisabitofthat Etsy shop. Lucky Maritimer’s can probably find them easily at Church Bazaars and such, but we know that there are crafty East Coast folks scattered all over the country, so ask around! You may find someone who could make you a pair, or maybe even teach you to make your own (if you are so inclined).
Oooooh, I wonder if they make thrummed socks*.. We could banish cold feet forever!
~All thawed out and ready for a new week ahead,
Jenn
*Update: Of course they do, I knew that idea was so great there was no way I was the first to think it up!
oh the title caught my attention! i have seen thrummed mitts before and they are just amazingly warm and soft. how cool that you wrote about this! (p.s. i have yet to knit thrummed knits, but it’s on the – very long – list!)
I’ve been wanting to learn how to make thrummed mittens for a while now. They look like the perfect mitts. I’ve got a problem of wearing out the thumbs of my knit mittens but I hope that if I have thrummed mittens I won’t have that problem anymore.