What You’ll Need
- An old 100-percent-wool sweater (not angora)
- Laundry detergent, washing machine, and dryer
- Paper
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Straight pins
- Yarn
- Large-eyed needle
What to Do
- Wash the sweater in your washing machine and dry it in the dryer. The wool will shrink and become felted.
- To make a pattern, place one hand on a piece of paper with the thumb out and other fingers together. Starting below the wrist bone, trace around the hand, leaving an extra half inch of space the whole way around. Cut out the pattern, then trace around it onto paper and cut out another pattern.
- Pin the mitten patterns, thumbs facing in, to the felted wool. The pins should go through the front and back of the sweater. For a finished edge, use the waistline of the sweater as the cuff of each mitten. Cut around the patterns through both layers of the sweater.
- Remove the paper patterns. For each mitten, pin the wool pieces together, matching the thumbs.
- Thread a large-eyed needle with a 6-foot-long piece of yarn. Make a large knot at the end.
- Beginning near the cuff of one mitten, push the needle through both layers and around the edge. A short distance from the first stitch, push the needle through again. Stitch all the way around the mitten. Don’t sew the mitten shut!
- Tie a large knot at the cuff, and trim the excess yarn. Be sure to remove all the pins.
- Repeat steps, 5, 6, and 7 to make the second mitten.
