My first pair of Thrummed Mittens

Good morning!

I just made my first pair of thrummed mittens. I love them! In case you have not heard of thrummed mittens, they are mittens that have roving (raw fiber) knit into them to make them feel extra soft.  The pieces of roving you knit in are called thrums.  The mittens look and feel like Uggs on the inside!

I used this pattern I found on Ravelry.  Keep reading for knitting technique links and pattern notes!


Knitting Techniques:
1. Creating the thrums from roving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsYjCFuqP28.  I like this tutorial because she makes the thrums into nice, neat pieces.  You can just create strips of thrums, but then the inside doesn't look pretty.  However, I found her technique for knitting in the thrums to be fussier than it needed to be.  The next tutorial is a little bit more intuitive (and the thrums stay put).

2. Knitting in the thrums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9PwXnDORa0.  She shows the thrum knitting at about minute 2: 50.  This video also shows how to make thrums like the first video link, but it is slightly less clear.

3. Afterthought thumb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i-knwd9PjA. This is a technique where you knit in scrap yarn to mark where you want to put in the thumb later! Very fun!

Pattern Notes:
Materials:  Size 4 needles (for a women's Small/Medium mitten); Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solids in Dusty Purple; Silk/Merino Roving from Highland Handmades in White Spruce Top.

I made the cuff 15 rows long. On the mitten body, I placed the afterthought thumb at row 18.  My biggest advice for this mitten is to start decreases immediately after a thrum row in both the mitten body and the thumb.  Otherwise, the top of the mitten and the thumb lack thrums, making them a cold pocket of the mitten (when really, you'd probably want these to be the warmest spots)!  Also, try not to make the thrums too big. I did this on my first mitten, and it came out a bit marshmallowy. You end up losing a bit of the shape.  Thinner thrums still feel very warm! Finally, I personally like a more rounded mitten top. I think next time I will try this pattern's mitten top to create a rounded mitten:

Hope you enjoy!

Much love,
~SaltyCrafts