There’s more than one way to make a mitten and Ken Mitchell has the goods to prove it.

“There’s an art to it,” the 61-year-old former airline pilot says, holding up a large basket of mittens he made. But he’s not talking about knitting needles and skeins of yarn. He’s talking about recycling. His mittens are made from wool sweaters he buys at the Salvation Army and the Goodwill stores in Bangor.

Three years ago, Mitchell, a retired pilot for Continental Express, learned the basics of mitten-making from another pilot, whose home economics teacher wife had made similar mittens while living in Wyoming.

“He gave me a hand-drawn paper pattern and it interested me,” Mitchell said. “I thought it would be fun to try making a pair.” He made two pairs to give as Yankee swap gifts at his church’s Christmas party. “Then my wife and daughter wanted some, so I made some more.”

The mittens, lined with heavy polar fleece – the kind the military uses for cold weather gear – are big and soft, and encase the hands in a cozy, chill-defying cocoon.

“No two pair are alike,” Mitchell said, “even though I get two pair of mittens from one sweater.” That’s because he carefully plans how he cuts out each pair. “You have to think about it and have an eye for it,” he says.

For Mitchell, making mittens is an outlet for his interest in mechanics – “I can fix anything,” he says – and for his creativity. The artistic value, the hands-on, mechanical and inventive aspects are all woven together in mitten-making, he says.

Mitchell shops about once a week for 100-percent wool sweaters he deems worthy of his mittens. His colors range the spectrum from darks to lights and in all designs from cables to plain old stockinette. He washes the garments in the washing machine and tosses them in the dryer, which shrinks them and gives them a felty kind of nap. Prewashing and drying the sweaters make the mittens, in turn, washable and dryable. Then, Mitchell sorts the sweaters into piles – plain colors and multicolored.

The next step is cutting out the mittens. He uses a rotary cutter for that process.

“Very little is wasted,” he explains. “Seventy-five to 80 percent of the sweater is used.” The ribbing part of the sweaters is used for the wrist ribbing on the mittens. He stitches the mittens on two vintage Singer sewing machines he bought at Goodwill. One machine is used for straight stitching; the other is used for zigzagging – to finish the seams and to make them durable. “This sewing machine cost me $9.”

Mitchell, trained in aviation mechanics, modified the sewing machines to make them more user-friendly when sewing together the thick layers of wool and polar fleece.

“I’ve spent quite a lot of time,” he said, “talking to Ralph Hill, who has a shop on Palm Street – been there for years fixing old sewing machines – so if I need parts, or manuals or anything, that’s where I go.”

Mitchell’s mitten-making operation is housed in a corner of the cellar of his house on Essex St. – right there beside the furnace and the shelving where the usual off-season household and sporting goods are stored. It’s not fancy, but it’s organized for efficiency and convenience, with a cutting station, a sewing station and bins for stockpiling sweaters. The tools of his newfound trade are handy, too – rows of metal bobbins, spools of Guterman thread, scissors, cutters and patterns.

“On the average,” he says, “I spend about five hours a day making mittens. It’s a short season. This isn’t a job for me. It’s a hobby.”

Overhearing a conversation at the Calico Kitchen Restaurant and Gift Shop in Milford gave Mitchell the impetus to try selling a few pairs.

“A woman came in wanting to buy some mittens for herself, but the gift shop didn’t have any,” Mitchell recalls, “so I asked if maybe I could put some of my mittens in the shop to see what would happen. They took 10 pair.”

What happened is that he also placed mittens for sale at Molly’s in Winterport and ended up selling 60 pairs of mittens between Dec. 1 and Dec. 25. That’s how, he said, he learned that it might be a good idea to start making mittens well ahead of the next holiday season.

Mitchell also custom-makes mittens to match a coat or jacket.

He’s thinking about doing a few craft shows in the fall and is mulling the idea of making ear-warmer headbands and hats to match the mittens, since he has had so many requests.

Mitten orders can be placed directly by calling Ken Mitchell at 942-0463.