Just Like Magic

While at a craft fair a few weeks ago, I noticed one of the crafters was knitting...something huge. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was knitting. Then it began to look like a mitten. I could make out what looked to be a thumb. But still, if it was a mitten, why on earth was she making it so huge? I know there are people out there with big hands, but I've never seen a hand large enough to accommodate what she was knitting.

Then I sauntered over to her craft table, where the mystery was solved. On display were several pairs of felted mittens. 

Ah-ha! She was knitting the mittens large enough for Paul Bunyan, then she would felt them down to normal-human size.

So of course I decided to try this myself. I'd had a little experience knitting-and-felting with the handbags I'd made, so I knew at least some of the steps involved.

I knit the above pair of 100% wool mittens a couple of days ago. I'd never before tried knitting mittens, but I found the pattern easy enough to follow. I didn't tell Ken what I was knitting; I simply announced I'd knit a pair of mittens as I handed them to him to try on.

He was speechless, but not with gratitude or admiration. He was wondering how to tell me that the humungous pair of mittens I'd knit were way too big for him. Rather girly-colored, too.

Finally I confessed that my next step was to felt the mittens, and felt them I did: I put hot water and a little soap in my top-loading washing machine, dropped in the huge mittens, started the agitation cycle, checked them every few minutes, and pulled them out of the water once they were my size. It took about 10-12 minutes for them to be "done."

I then rinsed them by hand in cold water, rolled them in a towel, laid them flat to dry, and voila! A pair of super-warm, super-comfy mittens.

P.S. In the top photo, you'll see a little bit of unused yarn. That's all I had left of the skein when I finished the knitting. The directions say these mittens take about 110 yards of worsted weight wool yarn. That has to be a misprint since the pair I knit took about 208 yards of a 210-yard skein. I was really sweating it out as I neared the end of the second mitten.