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.
Labels: Asle mitten, mitten, naalbinding, S.C.A., Society for Creative Anachronism