Booklet’s mitten, glove patterns classic

We who are lifelong hardy Mainers have tucked away in our minds fond memories of mittens made for us by mothers, aunts, grandmothers or other female – and sometimes male – relatives. I remember red wool mittens my mother knit for me when I was 5 years old. They were warm and pretty with nothing fancy about them. She liked her children to wear something red, no matter what the season. That way, when she looked out across the neighboring field or yard at a group of children playing, she knew instantly which ones were hers and what they were up to.

I also remember ombre mittens my Uncle Bill knit for me when I was 9. They varied in color from off-white to dark rust, the variegated colors creating multihued stripes, which I thought very fine, indeed.

I remember feeling very special whenever I wore those mittens. Whenever I pulled them on my hands, I knew instinctively that my mother and uncle cared enough about me to spend hours patiently knitting to protect me from the cold.

Both pairs of mittens were knit “from scratch” on four double-pointed steel needles, without a pattern, and yet they were almost identical in design. Surely, mother and uncle must have tapped into some universal mitten pattern that knitters handed around as easily and as often as they handed around a cookie recipe – a pattern they had committed to memory.

That notion may have some basis in fact. Several years ago I was given a 1953 vintage Berhard Ulmann Co. booklet, “Gloves and Mittens to Knit and Crochet for the Entire Family.” It was Volume 29 in a series of booklets and sold for the grand sum of 50 cents. There on pages 14 and 15 I found instructions for mittens exactly like the ones I wore as a little girl.

The mitten instructions are given in a chartlike form in the clearest, most precise way – from cuff, to hand, to thumb – such a boon to a knitter, no matter how experienced.

The instructions give three sizes for children and medium sizes for women and men.

There are other reasons I love this booklet. In it I found instructions for open palm mittens, the kind that have a “cap” that folds back to leave fingertips free, a great feature for photographers or others who work in the cold, but need fingers free. These hybrid mittens also are known as “glittens.”

If you think you can’t knit gloves, the instructions in the booklet are so detailed it’s like knitting with someone holding your hand, helping you through each step.

For those who are fearful of four-needle knitting, instructions for two-needle mittens are given with as much clarity as the four-needle ones.

Two-needle mittens in a Norwegian heart-motif pattern in white and blue, and children’s four-needle Norwegian mittens in a snowflake pattern offer a challenge for those who enjoy working with several colors at once.

All of the patterns in the booklet, knitted and crocheted, have about them a ’50s kind of elegance that is timeless. Shopgirl, who has a copy of the booklet and uses the mitten patterns in it, agrees. If I were a needlework book publisher, I’d reprint this one. It’s a keeper.

Surf the Web, you’ll find copies of the booklet offered for sale at various Web sites. Also check local libraries. Perhaps you’ll find a copy squirreled away somewhere in the stacks.

Snippets

. If By Hand readers know of any charitable organizations involved in teaching children, the elderly or others how to do embroidery, I have crewel and needlepoint yarn to donate, thanks to the generosity of a By Hand reader. Call me for details.

. A reader is seeking three skeins of Red Heart classic “Purple” yarn needed to finish a project. If anyone knows where she might obtain the yarn, e-mail Lilacve1@aol.com.

. Gloria Buntrock of Orono is the winner of the drawing for the handmade needlebook offered at the Bangor Public Library Fiber Arts Exhibit on Feb. 25.

Ardeana Hamlin may be reached at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.