Life in snow? When the mitts are wet...

A year ago today, we had a record breaking warm day, it was 18.8C (66F).  This morning, it was -21C(-6F) with a windchill of -31C (-24F).  Massive shifts in weather, (climate change?) anyone?

This week I got an email from one of the grade 1 teachers.  Apparently, in Canada, kids go outside a lot for recess.  My kids get 3 recesses, and if you count the time between the bus drop off and the first bell?  4.  While my guys were mostly well dressed (sweater, snow pants, parka, extra hat under hood, insulated snow boots and doubled wool mitts)--apparently their mitts never dried off between play sessions.  There was still snow on the wet mitts when they went to put them on at the next recess, and that wasn't a good plan.

I saw the problem.  While wool mitts are warm, they are not waterproof. (Unless felted and greased up with added lanolin....but never mind.)  I wasn't going to ditch all those handknit mitts for storebought polar fleece with 'waterproof' nylon on the outside.  I grumbled.  I started to feel grouchy about our dependence on petroleum...

And then I wondered why kids couldn't put their mitts on the radiators like they do at home (no radiators, the boys said) and why kids in Canada had to play outside so much (they go outside until it's below -28 Celsius(-18F).  When it is -29C?  indoor recess... and well, the Professor caught me grumbling and dwelling on things.

He went to the basement and dug around in the hand-me-down pile until he found a torn up Halloween costume cast-off--a fire fighters' costume made of some sort of nylon.  (polyester, aka, petroleum byproduct.)  He pointed out that cutting it up to reuse it would be the best solution....cheap, relatively fast, and most efficient.  A few hours later, with the help of a sewing machine and me, we had waterproof mitten covers.

So we could go out to play and shovel again, even before the mittens were dry on the radiator.
Hard to believe that we were shooting outdoor photos for a new kids' sweater pattern only a couple of weeks ago!  (It was cold out, but not like this....)

This sweater design is in the editing stage, and the pattern will be available in sizes 2-10.

....Coming soon!