My Mittens

My Mittens is a small business started in 2008 by my friend Julia Zanes and me. Julia's mom had given her a pile of tiny and brightly colored cashmere sweaters, and Julia had the idea to make them into mittens as holiday gifts, and maybe sell a few pairs too. So we started sewing in April, a few hours a week, at Julia's house. We found a pattern online and modified it a bit. We made a large size, and a small size, and lined them all with black poly fleece from a bolt that Julia had bought. They were all fun and mismatched colors--bright blues, pinks, peaches, yellows, greens, etc. They were trimmed with a bright button, and all cashmere. We ended up making some gifts, and selling about 30 pairs to friends and neighbors. It was not hugely profitable, but it was a good learning experience and a lot of fun. Julia is a fine artist, and didn't want to keep making the mitts, but was glad that I wanted to keep making them...so I have been making more each year, and now make them out of many types of wool: lambswool, merino, cashmere and angora/lambswool blends are my favorites, but I also love shetland, handspun, boiled wool, mohair, alpaca, as well as blends of these.