Cold Hands, warm heart

This winter has been particularly cold and snowy here in the Northeast. It seems like every 3 days, the white stuff is swirling around and temps are below freezing. Not such a big deal, I know, but my hands tend to turn very painful and white at the tips when exposed to any cold. I've tried all sorts of gloves and layers of gloves, but still suffer. Recently I had a discussion with a friend who swore that mittens were much warmer, so I thought I'd give them a try. Oddly enough, I didn't find any for sale in my various haunts, so I had to make some.

Yarn: Andean Alpaca Regal, size 9 needles, probably 1/2 skein ( 50 yards) made both. Pattern: Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns, Mitten pattern.

I made a little mistake on the ribbing, but what the heck. They fit and were soft and warm. However, given the abuse of putting them on and off, handling keys, snowshovels, etc, and with velcro on my jacket, I thought they should have polarfleece outer gloves, which would absorb the brunt of abrasion, so I made some and slipped the mittens inside them.

They might look like oven mitts, but they are toasty warm! Finally!