Knitted Handlebar Mitts - Test 2

Finally got around to testing these today with their new alpaca liner.

They actually held up fairly well. I think you can see from the pic that my cheeks are pretty red. It was cold. Like about -2 deg C with a brisk wind.

But my hands were fine. I tried them first with a basic stretchy dollar store mini glove inside. No cold issues whatsoever. Not sweaty. You could feel a cool pocket inside the glove. The metal brake handle was cold, never became un-cold, just not as frigid.

Went around the neighbourhood making scout deliveries.  Probably out for around 40 mins. So a lot of stopping and starting as the kid went from house to house. I cooled down. But hands never got cold.

For about a block on the way home, i used no glove inside the mitts. That was also fine. My hands werent cold to the bone. And the hands do slip in and out of the mitt easier.

The mitt has a narrow black alpaca liner on the inside. I wanted to try a tight fit right against the hand for better insulation. You can still feel cold against the skin, but again not bone numbing.

The brake handle does poke thru the liner. But that's the good thing about knitting. it has kind of built in chinks so there's lots of give.

I could have tried tightening off the draw strings to keep more cold out. I didnt really get a chance before the ride was over.

I like how the knit mitt gives you a lot more colour options, which is what i wanted.

The thing i'm not sure is sustainable is the length of time to make it. If I were to sell, i'd like to keep the  price $50 or less. but i think with the extra yarn in the liner and the time to make and stitch together, i wouldnt make money on it.

If you could get the same results from a  knit as you go double layer, like thru Fair Isle stranding, that might cut time. But the patterning is less mindless than i'd like it to be. I wonder if simply weaving an a layer on the wrong side might do it. not tricky, but extra time.

Back to simple pattern Fair Isle. I might have to give up the band i wanted for  duplicate stitch personalization. But that would have taken extra time anyway.

I'm also not sure right now how it does for snow or rain repellent.  It's not going to be as  repellent as plastic, but it might do okay for snow, and get you most of the way home dry in a light rain.

More mulling required, I think.

Flower girl dress - prototype

Well maybe not that much of a prototype. I've made these hybrid knit/cloth dresses for years. I keep asking myself why. Why not just crochet the skirt as well?

I dunno. I think you can make use of some pretty remnants.

And now that mom's gone, it's a way to use cloth connected to a loved one. A long time ago I inherited a bunch of cloth mom had bought when we were tiny kids. I remember some garments she made from them. Even using cloth she thought was pretty kind of makes me happy.

Mom would have loved the classic gingham in this skirt. I had some pieces but none were quite big enough to make the generous hem mom would have approved of.

That's why i added the crocheted picot lace trim. It's not quite the same blue family, but i like the pallet of blues idea.

As for the matching hat, i sewed lots of cotton hats for my girls when they were small. Out of remnants. I had a beautiful yellow one that a librarian commented on one time. It later went missing. I think it was a hit with more than the librarian.

I didnt have enough scraps or time to sew up a hat to match here. So i crocheted the little hat with  fan motif in the hat band.

It still bothered me that the gingham didn't tie in to the hat. Then it hit me - a ribbon thru the wide gaps in the fan. The ribbon is just a strip of the gingham, pinked and stay stitched all around. Thread thru and simply tie in a square knot at the back. Gives a way to snug up on a tiny head, along with say using bobby pins. I also did a small picot strip of the  hem lace to make it seem like less of an after thought as well.

I love this knit bodice with the sort of ribbon tied shoulders. It makes for a nice stretchy fit around round tummies. The shoulder ties allow quite a bit of adjustment for length. I measured this at 14 inches from shoulder to end of lace for the smallest fit on the doll. Tied longer, I could get a length of 18 inches. You could do longer. You might just have to put a lace strip across the chest so it doesn't dip down too far. Obvs you could also wear with a tshirt or turtleneck under it and more of suspendered skirt effect.

The socks are the ribbon embroidered flower  ones i posted a while ago.

The little Mary Jane slipper shoes are ones i also made a while ago. They could be done in any colour.

To adapt to flower girl white, this could be done in  the offwhite of the blanket in photos. Bodice and blanket are same weight craft cotton. Cloth skirt could be eyelet.

I don't think i would need the periwinkle lace piece if i bought a piece of eyelet that was big enough.

That would make the dress cheaper to produce. To account for time, I could probably list the dress for $30 and the hat for $15.

This sundress outfit was originally made for a toddler cousin who had a birthday recently. It has taken me a year to finish - sigh. But I think she can still wear it :D

Fun project.

Knit handlebar mitts - road trial

Ok so i made a 2nd mitt but gathered the top thinking maybe the wide square top of the first try might be colder.

Square top created by 3 needle bind off; round top by thread long tail thru last row.

Square top went over readouts and brake handles better, with less pulling away than round top.

Tested them today. Temp was 3 degrees C when i got back.

Interestingly, the  round top was colder. I;m not sure why.Wonder if it's because the  square style allowed the  warmth of the mitt to rest closer to the hand.

At first i wondered if maybe the wind blew more on the round top hand. But the round top was still colder on the way back when the wind blew on the other hand.

With skin right against the mitt, my hands were chilly but not frozen.

About half way thru the ride, I put on a nylon cycling glove under the mitt. Hands were  toasty that way. Underpad of mitt gave good grip on the thumb throttle and brakes inside mitt.

Went barehanded on last block home. Freezing. Not the coldest i've ever felt. I've also found that when you ride with handlebar mitts, once you get riding, your hands warm up and maybe generate some warm air inside the gloves. So it could be that taking the gloves off at end of ride, a lot of circulation warm up had already happened.

This ride did not test for waterproofing. Not too concerned about that. Most other cycling gloves would  get damp anyway.

I think these mitts are good for slightly below zero and above. If it was winter cold, I would probably go back to my padded  plastic coated pogies.

But the kmitted mitts do what i wanted in terms of really opening up the  colour options with affordable materials. Simple stripes had a nice Hudson Bay blanket kind of look.

I think i could further personalize these with a band of duplicate stitching, which wouldnt have to be in wool. But much more investment in time would take the affordability out of these mitts.

Wool is more expensive. And tighter gauge would be better. But tighter is harder on the fingers to knit - for me anyway.

Probably a decent rate would be $50. Decent price point if you can upgrade with colour. I would probably post at $45 and  try to keep the # of hours down.

With the square top I changed from in the round to back and forth at the  handlebar opening. With  the round glove i continued in the round using a primitive steek technique. A lot more bulk is created. More time bc i;m not so skilled at this. Note to self - keep it simple, go back and forth at opening, add colour thru dup stitch. Idea - x's and o's - love the earth by biking kind of thing.

Certainly worth developing a pattern for:)