Solstice Mittens

With winter storm warnings blinking on my computer tool bar and anticipated temperatures hovering below zero all day, it seemed the perfect time to wear my first ever fulled wool mittens. 

The timeline from knitting to fulling to wearing spans nearly a decade.  These mittens were knit between February – March 2013 during a course at a local fabric store no longer in business.  But the class only provided the pattern and a knitting circle on two evenings.  I took my new project home and worried about how to actually create the thick mittens without ruining my work.  I finally deduced that whether I ruined the mittens during the hot water agitated washing or if they simply continued to sit at the bottom of a wicker yarn basket, they were equally unwearable.  A Covid Finishing Fest hosted by Northfield Yarns in May 2020 gave me the impetus to watch several how-to videos and violà mittens!  Not needed with springtime temps, I tucked them away to be forgotten, thought lost, then found, and worn today for the first time.   

Happy winter solstice!

Note:  The distinction between fulling and felting is one of timing.  In the textile world, felting is a done with fibers, not with woven cloth while fulling describes the act of wet finishing the woven cloth or knitted item with water, temperature and agitation.