A discussion on construction of the mitten

Construction

The Mitten

        I used a natural colored coarse wool from Mora, a small village near Dalarna Sweden, which was machine spun in an S-spin (left or counter-clockwise) direction and Z-plied (right or clockwise direction). It measures 2-3mm in diameter. I chose to use a machine spun wool over hand-spun as I did not have enough time to spin the amount of yardage needed to make a pair of mittens.  Due to time constraints I also opted to use a smaller hand dyed thread in the colors called for to add the fringe to this set of mittens.

        I was gifted with a lovely bone needle measuring 6cm long with which I constructed the mittens.  I also used a smaller wooden needle to weave the loose ends into the fabric when the mittens were completed and to attach the fringe.

        I used the Åsle naalbinding stitch to build the mittens.  The original find is a single left-handed mitten; however, I created a complete pair as it is my hope to wear them after presenting them.  My mittens measure 11 cm wide just below the thumb and 17.5 cm wide at the base of the cuff.  They each measure 27” in total length.

        I chose to start the mittens from the tip based on a theory by Anne Marie Decker (Mistress Sigrid Briansdottir) in which she states due to examination of photos and trial pieces she believes that the mitten was started at the tip.&  I also made some trial pieces and agree with her assessment. (Briansdottir 5)

        As this technique uses short pieces of yarn, periodically you will need to attach additional yarn.  There are several techniques for doing so.  A banner from Mammen (Hald 299) shows knots where additional yarn was added; however, in garments this might not be feasible.  Another join called a “Russian join” splices the yarns together by sewing them into each other.  Yet another join called splicing involves fraying the ends of each of the yarns to be joined and then spinning them together.  As of yet there has been no determination as to which method was used in the mitten as the joins are not visible so I chose to use a felted join wherein you lay the ends together overlapping each other, moisten them, and then rub them together to create enough friction to felt them together.  In this way I have been able to create joins that are “nearly” invisible.