Belated Thrummed Mittens

Last year, I promised my mom a pair of mittens for her birthday.  For a woman with poor circulation who lives in one of the coldest and windiest regions in the US, I thought I would make some windproof, fuzzy mittens!

I decided on the thrummed/stuffed/fluffy mittens pattern from Joan Janes on Ravelry and they came out wonderfully!  Essentially, the concept is that you use a basic yarn as a background, and then use ripped roving yarn to make "thrums," with the fluffy ripped ends sticking straight into the mitten.  When you wear it, the ends felt together to the sides and all you feel is a beautiful wind-proof fluffy warm barrier.

I made a pair of these mittens for my mother...and they wouldn't even go over the heel of her hand.

So, determined to rip them out and start over despite the fact that I had just become homeless, I returned to the drawing board, only to decide within the next week that I was needed to graduate early, which meant I had to start on the wedding knits! (here, here, here, and here)

So now, as we're approaching her birthday again, I decided what better than to send these mittens over with her gift for this year?

The muppet slaughtering.

I wanted to re-use the yarn from the original pair, but instead I slaughtered a muppet (phrase coined by Randall).  Yep, undoing them was a horrific experiment in un-felting, poorly-pulling, and exploding all over the living room.  It was okay, though, because when I made the original pair, I ended up slicing little cuts on the insides of my knuckles from ripping all the roving yarn (cutting them doesn't give the same effect), so I knew at the very least I needed those thrums!

And here we are, finally, with a pair of mittens that will hopefully fit my mother!

Ravelry Pattern | Ravelry Project