Recycled Jumper Mittens

I blogged about these on my own blog back in December, but just realised how relevant they are for this community. Hopefully they'll help others realise that there can be life after a washing machine accident!!!

Towards the end of last year, just as the weather started to turn nippy, my boss bought this pattern from Etsy. She bought it with an eye to finding a use for all the felted up and moth-eaten knits we receive. Oh, how we have used and abused this pattern! We've made a stack of them in all different colour/pattern/texture combinations.

This particular pair (pictured above) is my own. My boss gave me this felted up leopard print cardigan ages ago, knowing how into animal print I am. I was planning on cutting it up and using sections 'cut-n-shut' with other knit or sweat to make a new jumper or cardi. However, I hadn't got round to that and the inspiration for how to approach that has been lacking, so most of the cardi became these mittens instead.

The outer mitten is made from three main pieces, plus the ribbing harvested from the initial cardi/jumper/sweater. The lining is made from the same three main pattern pieces, but stitched together with a slightly wider seam allowance so that the lining ends up a bit smaller and therefore fits better inside the outer mitten part. I used parts of a purple cashmere jumper that moths had attacked for the lining which makes them soooo soft inside. Because these don't use very much fabric and the pattern pieces are quite small, it's quite easy to harvest the usable parts from stained or moth eaten woollen garments that would otherwise be heading to the textiles recycle bin.

As you can see, my leopard mittens are made by using just one garment for the outer sections. But you can have lots of fun messing around with different combinations if you have a few unwanted/unwearable woollen garments at your disposal. For example, here's a pair I made from different shades of grey wool, for a more understated look!:

The pattern also includes mens and childrens sizes. I've made several pairs of these for gifts and I think that they're a pretty safe bet because people tend to be a bit more open to wearing crazy mittens when the flash of colour is limited to a small part of their whole outfit.

If, like me you are skilled in the art of unintentionally felting woollen jumpers, then you're in luck! You can give me new life to that unwearable garment whilst being comforted by the knowledge that shrunken, felted wool makes for warmer and more weather-proof mittens than unfelted wool! My felted leopard ones are so toasty. I'm never going to discard the results of my shrunken laundry accidents ever again!

Happy refashioning and remaking!
Zoe xxx