Have you ever heard The Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things" and just sat there imagining all the objects Maria lists in it?
It's easy to picture those fuzzy kittens, the paper packages, and snowflakes on eyelashes, but what of those warm woolen mittens? How do you see those? Me, I typically imagine thick, creamy yarn woven together into simple, pretty mitts; but that vision soon changed when I finished this latest project: my very own woolen mittens!
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The Reveal
The base of these mittens are actually acrylic, but the fuzzy, multi-colored stitches are wool that I added with a technique called "after-thought thrumming." If you're curious what that is, check out my "Adventures in Fiber" post here. It's also the introductory article for this particular project, if you'd like some extra background information. I include links to a couple thrumming tutorials there, too!
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Materials Used
When after-thought thrumming, you need to use a crochet hook that's a similar size to the stitches you'll be weaving into.
You also want to keep your thrums as thick as the yarn of your project, too. This keeps the thrums from distorting the fabric too much when installed. I ended up using a size G (4mm) crochet hook to insert my thrums, but mine were a bit on the thick side, so I did get distortion where the stitches are pulled (see the photos above). I think it adds more visual appeal to my mittens (and I believe it'll settle down with wear), but be aware of that if you're trying this technique yourself.
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Speaking of thrums, I found that how you shape them matters.
When I started the first mitt, I used the thrums as suggested by The Fiber Mouse's tutorial on after-thought thrums. She just took the wool staple as it was and thread it through her stitches. I found this method hard to work with because it made the interior of the mitten messy. I had to shuffle through untamed roving to find my next stitch, and I'd be splitting thrums accidentally to put in another.
I ended up using AllAboutAmi's method for thrum-making that she shares here. She folded her staple's ends in and then lightly felted them with her fingers to make her thrums look like little bows. This shape was much neater and faster for me to use than thrumming with wool pulled straight from the batt. I implemented this for the rest of my first mitt and all of the second.
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Suggestions
If you want to after-thought thrum yourself, here are a few tips I learned from tutorials and my own experience:
- Make sure the project is bigger than it needs to be: if you thrum into something that already fits well, it will be uncomfortable and very stretched. Thrums add a lot of bulk, so make sure you're working with something a couple sizes bigger than the end result for the best outcome. My mitts weren't as over-sized as I thought they were, so mine are a bit snug in the thumbs and misshapen from the added volume.
- Use roving with a long staple length: I talk more about staples in this post, but staples for this project are your thrums. You want to use a wool roving that has a staple length over 2.5" so you have enough material to weave in to your piece. Too short of roving lengths won't felt together as needed to created the insulating layer the thrums are meant to make.
- Make your thrums in advance: the tutorials I watched and read suggested this. It ensures your thrums are the same size and lets you find a rhythm since you're not stopping every stitch to pull, shape, and then insert the thrum. I didn't make mine all at once; I made a batch to work from every time I sat down to this project. My thrums did vary a bit in size, but I liked this way of working best for me.
- Thrum from the top-down in mittens: if you start from the bottom, you'll be fighting through thrum fuzz on the inside of your mittens as you work your way up. Save yourself the headache and work from the top.
- Use a disappearing pen or chalk to mark where you want your thrums: This will make installing them much faster, and you can make sure your thrums are even! You can go into auto-pilot because you don't have to think about the next placement.
- Use a crochet hook the same size or smaller than your knit stitches for the best results
- Pull your thrums to be a similar thickness to your piece's stitches to avoid distortion and puckering
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With this, I end 2022's Finished Objects List!
I know I've only been back since late September, but I managed to complete a lot of yarny projects with the help of this blog. Wanna see what I've made? Check out the Finished Object Posts List for some show-and-tell. A few are from a couple year's back, but they still count, right?
Have a Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2023!
**When I get to photograph the mittens on in a little photoshooot, I'll post them here and on Instagram!!"
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