Mittens

“ Dot wanted to tell the story of the lost mittens and began, “One day when we were sliding on the ice.”
At that very moment Mother Curly-Tail [21] jumped down from her chair, and whispered in the ear of each little Curly-Tail.
“Be polite to the Three Little Kittens,
But don’t let them talk any more of their mittens.”
Tot wanted to tell about finding the mittens, so she began,
“One day when we were sliding on the ice.” ”

“ Who will make a warm pair of mittens for some cold pair of little hands? If the following directions are only followed, there will be no trouble:
Fig. 2.—DETAIL OF MITTEN.
These mittens are worked with white zephyr worsted and steel knitting-needles of suitable size. The knitted part is all plain, with the exception of a round of holes, through which is run a cord finished with balls. The cuff is crocheted in Afghan stitch, and is set on the mitten. For the mitten make a foundation of 36 stitches ”

“ The farmers came into town in home-made sleighs, with bed-quilts and hay piled in the rough boxes.
Fur coats, fur caps, fur mittens, overshoes buckling almost to the knees, gray knitted scarfs ten feet long, thick woolen socks, canvas jackets lined with fluffy yellow wool like the plumage of ducklings, moccasins, red flannel wristlets for the blazing chapped wrists of boys—these protections against winter were busily dug out of moth-ball-sprinkled drawers and tar-bags in closets, and all over town small boys were squealing, “Oh, there's my mittens!” ”

“ The little girls who lived on Amity Street all wore mittens when they went to school in winter. Nobody’s mother ever thought of anything else to keep small hands warm. Some mothers or grandmothers crocheted them, and some knit them with fancy stitches down the back, or put other mark of distinction upon them; but they were always mittens, and were always fastened to a long ribbon or piece of braid or knitted rein, so that they might not get lost, one from the other. ”

“ But I made those mittens, and then I felt better.”
“What mittens?” asked Milly, who hadn’t untied her bonnet yet, and couldn’t know in a minute everything that had happened.
“Why, Lucy’s red mittens; don’t you know? I tell you, Milly, what you must do when you don’t feel happy: you must make somebody some mittens.”
This was Flaxie’s way of saying “You must help other people.” But Milly knew what she meant. Children understand one another when the talking is ever so crooked. ”

“ Beads in rows and zigzag lines ornament the wrist, and strands of beads are pendant from the outside seams. The strands are often tipped with tassels of variegated woolen threads. The mittens intended for severe weather are often lined with the thin skin of a fœtal reindeer, which has short, soft hair. Great exertion often causes the hands to perspire and moisten the hair, and this freezes the instant the mitten is removed from the hand, and is liable to freeze the fingers within it. ”

“ He would wear the cap and overcoat, even if it was summer; then he wouldn't get so tired carrying them. He put on the fur cap, pulling it well down over his ears, and slipped into the overcoat. Slowly he took up the woolly dog and started down the stairs. Then he remembered the red mittens which a lady had brought him at Christmas, and returned to get them. ”

“ See How to Cast On Stitches with Knitting Needle, pages 260 and 261.
[K] The doll’s mittens are so small that they are difficult to make. It would be a good experiment to make one mitten with wrapping yarn before attempting to use the saxony wool—just for practice. ”

“ Old Mother Kit-Cat straightened her cap and called.
“Come in, come in, the hearth is wide,
There’s room for one and all inside.”
They all held their breath for no one came in this time.
The Three Little Kittens whispered to each other “What if it should be the Three Little Foxes coming in next? What if it should be the Three Little Foxes who stole our mittens?” ”

“ The tiny mittens are nicely mended, and no shoulder-strap is so tight as to impede motion or cut the tender skin, till the justly irritated child gets a boxed ear at school, which should by right have been administered to the person who planned and put on its abominable clothes—ruffled, mayhap, and embroidered, but ill-fitting, and rasping as the hair-cloth shirt of the devotee. ”

“ All are of firm, close-woven, homespun linen, but the little mittens have been worn at the ends by the active friction of baby hands, and are patched with colored [36] "chiney" or calico. A similar colored material frills the sleeves and neck. A pair of baby's mitts of fine lace also may be seen at the Essex Institute. ”

“ GRANDPA GROWLER AND THE THREE BEARS Next morning early, Dot and Tot and Trot woke up crying,
“We’re good Little Kittens,
May we find our mittens?
Old Mother Kit-Cat, we’re coming down stairs,
We’re good Little Kittens,
We’ll go find our mittens,
If we may repair to the home of Three Bears.”
Old Mother Kit-Cat answered, “What do you know about Bears? You cannot understand Bear Language.” ”

“ There were many of them, red being the fashionable color for mittens at Butternut Corner, but apparently they were all sound and whole. Tommy Barker had one mitten with a white thumb, which his blind grandmother had knitted on in place of a torn thumb, and little Seba Sage had but one mitten; but that one was very dark red, not the vivid scarlet of the ravelling.
Rilly Parkhurst whispered to Patty, as she sat down beside her on the sled: "Tilly Coombs has the ravelled mitten! She is trying to cover it with her shawl; it is only a little more than half a mitten!" ”

“ Long silk mittens are extremely pretty in the evening, and shorter ones midway to the elbow, look nice in the house with the half-long sleeves. To keep the feet warm, wear a pair of soft woollen stockings, with silk ones drawn over. ”

“ I prefer to have my legs and arms free, and to be ready for any emergency at a moment's notice. I never go to sleep when out on the sea ice without my mittens on, and if I pull my arms inside my sleeves I pull my mittens in too, so as to be ready for instant action. ”

“ The sleeves of the jacket are generally fringed with wolf or dog skin to protect this exposed portion of the wrist.
Similar mittens of black sealskin are also worn by the men during damp weather, or when handling objects which would easily soil a pair of furred mittens. I have never seen a woman wear this kind of covering for the hand. It appears to be exclusively worn by the men.
Fig. 44. Long waterproof sealskin mitten.
The men who engage in the late fall seal hunting protect their hands with waterproof gauntlets, which reach well up over the forearm. ”

“ Sometimes girls four years of age could knit stockings. Boys had to knit their own suspenders. [262] All the stockings and mittens for the family, and coarse socks and mittens for sale, were made in large numbers. Much fine knitting was done, with many intricate and elaborate stitches; those known as the "herring-bone" and "fox and geese" were great favorites. By the use of curious stitches initials could be knit into mittens; and it is said that one young New Hampshire girl, using fine flaxen yarn, knit the whole alphabet and a verse of poetry into a pair of mittens ”

“ This pair was wrought and worn in the sixteenth century, and the stitches and work are those of the Flanders point laces. I have seen tiny mitts knitted of silk, of fine linen thread, also made of linen, hem-stitched, or worked in drawn-work, or embroidered, and one pair of mittens, and the cap that matched was of tatting-work done in the finest of thread. No needlepoint could be more beautiful. ”

“ Oh, you good little kitten!
Now you shall have some pie!"
And off they went, the children perfectly delighted with [Pg 37] the comical play of the kittens. I dare say they hid their mittens again as soon as they got home. ”

“ They had all done enough shovelling of snow that day, but next day they went to the Ground Hog’s hole and he cried sleepily,
“Come shovel me out, you dear little Kittens,
I’ll give you pennies to buy wool for mittens.”
They began to shovel with right good will and all the while Old Shadow, the Ground Hog was scolding about sunshine and shadow. ”

“ Do you want to know something? I have three pairs of kid gloves. I've had kid mittens before from the Christmas tree, but never real kid gloves with five fingers. I take them out and try them on every little while. It's all I can do not to wear them to classes. ”

“ Worsted mittens are fitted to the fingers, and when all is ready, the Briarean hand is dipped into the bath of pulp, the air in the tubes is withdrawn, the liquid necessarily rushes towards the fingers, and the water passing through, leaves the pulp adherent to the mitten. ”

“ Can you stop studying a minute and show me your room? Say, I've just been down to the store and bought me these gloves, for I was bound I wouldn't wear mittens this winter; they're simply too countrified. ”

“ I know of nothing better than mittens, not gloves, made of heavy woolen cloth, with a pair of cotton ones drawn over them. They are easier dried than a single pair of heavy ones; are easily made from old material, costing nothing, and are warm. They should be loose enough to pull off quickly, and the tops should come well up over the wrists inside the coat sleeves. ”

“ The outer half of the thumb and the under side of the forearm are made of a single piece, stitched to the palm portion and that which covers the back of the hand and arm, so that, including the edging of hairy skin, there are only four pieces of skin entering into the make of a pair of these mittens. They are worn only by the men, and only when they are engaged in work where the hands would be immersed in water during cold weather. As the skin from which they are made is the same as that used for water-tight boots, it is obvious that no moisture can touch the skin of the hand. ”

“ To protect the hands, wear thick woolen mittens, with very long wrists, so they will come up over the dress or coat sleeve, thus protecting the hands and wrists completely from stings. To protect the face and neck, get coarse black lace, one-half yard wide and a yard and a quarter in length. ”

“ With this very important exception, the little play is pretty good. And this is what your mother and I will do: When you are perfect in your parts, we will have [75] a private rehearsal. Then we will invite about fifty of our friends to witness this elegant entertainment, for which they must pay one pair of mittens apiece for the brave soldiers. We will give them one week to make them, which will be abundance of time; and I have no doubt but what they will think it very cheap pay for so much pleasure. ”

“ Those little machines which look like old gloves cropped to the knuckles, are gross outrages upon taste: they are called, I believe, mittens; and many excellent young ladies wear them, particularly in the country, during cold weather. ”

“ I then began to discard everything that I had in my pocket, finally throwing my wrist-watch into a canal. A wrist-watch does not add much weight, but when you plod along and have not eaten for a month it finally becomes rather heavy. The next thing I discarded was a pair of flying-mittens.
These mittens I had got at Camp Borden, in Canada, and had become quite famous, as my friends termed them "snow-shoes." In fact, they were a ridiculous pair of mittens, but the best pair I ever had, and I really felt worse when I lost those mittens than anything else. ”