Cheesy Mittens

It's cold in Montana. Cold. It finally warmed up to -16 F (-26 C).

If you have never experienced this kind of cold, it's intense. Walk out the front door and the artificial fibers in your coat freeze and make it crackle as you move. Take a deep breath and the air is so cold it burns like thick smoke in your chest. After you chip through the ice on the car door, you sit on the foam cushion of the driver's seat and it's stiff. You sit several inches taller. Turn on the car to warm the engine (plugged in all night to a block heater to prevent a frozen engine) and the CD player sounds satanic and warped and the cold machine attempts to play. By now your snot is freezing in your nose. Your lips feel like cracking. Your toes are numb. Your forehead stings like an ice cream headache inflicted from the outside.

My poor little girl endured my bundling this morning. I wrapped her in as many layers as she would tolerate. Still, she stood at the front door with tears in her eyes. She didn't want to go into the cold. She said that her mittens aren't warm enough and her hands hurt. I rubbed her hands, blew warm air on them, and tucked them into the pockets of her snowsuit. I hugged her and tried to give her as much of my warmth as I could. (She refuses to wear high-tech ski mittens. They are too crispy and her hands can't get any air. She's a pickly little thing.)

Cold is not an excuse to miss school here.

The thrums look like little hearts.

As soon as she walked out the front door, I cast on for these mittens. I finished the first one before I took a shower. Now she will have the warmest mittens I can give her. Isabel is excited to wear them tomorrow. She loves the thrums. She said they feel like pillows full of fluffy cheese (???) and she loves cheesy mittens.

Obligatory inside-out $$$ shot.

The pattern is my Tip Down Mittens with Gusset (see Patterns tab.) I used handspun remnants and tiny bits of roving too small to sell. The colors match her snowsuit. I used size 3 needles and only increased the palm to 32. They look huge on her, but the roving needs room to trap warm air.

No child of mine will fear the cold. Not allowed.