Oh so cold at the moment. My hands really suffer in the cold with chilblains and stiffness, as a result I have a large collection of gloves, fingerless, wristies, warmers etc.
Some of these have finger pads which have worn away but I can't bear to throw them away- the green and brown striped ones particularly- hopefully they will become wrist warmers. Any other suggestions to repurpose worn out gloves are welcome- email me! This year I have invested- they were so expensive- in sheepskin. I was in a moral quandary buying them- I don't eat meat- but I took the cowardly standpoint and try not to think about it. Result: toasty, flexible hands even in minus temperatures. Warmer than cashmere and they won't wear out so fast.
Indoors, I have been using a hand-knitted muff (the word always makes me laugh) if I am sitting watching tv. My mum bought the pattern (it is from a Louisa Harding Rowan booklet) and the wool- Debbie Bliss merino aran- as a present, my aunt knitted it for me. I lined it with puffy polyester batting and a wool cashmere felted weave that I picked up cheap in a local fabric shop. I ran a little shearing elastic along each side edge to gather them in a bit. I like the joint effort in this project
I put a heated wheat bag inside and it is cold hand heaven!
I had an experiment with some cashmere wrist warmers. These aren't the prettiest thing but they are so warm. They were the sleeves of a thrifted jumper given to me by friend Paula. First, hot-washed to fuzz them up and discourage unravelling. Then, machined in a tube with seams on the outside as inside seams tend to rub. Then trimmed with pinking sheers and cross stitched with cream perle thread to flatten and decorate. The top and bottoms are zig zag hemmed. I am not good at sewing knits but with these it doesn't really matter, warmth over style. The thumb holes are stitched around by hand, buttonhole stitch. Take a look at Mia's blog for a lovely warm scarf at her Christmas Calendar makes.
Last night Damian and I braved the cold, ice and even the small covering of snow that came yesterday and went to see The Villagers. They warmed my heart and my soul-intense, emotional and very beautiful x
Hope the linky works below- enjoy
