When you were a kid, did you wear your mittens and gloves on bands or strings threaded through your coat sleeves to keep them safe? I did, and have very vivid recollections of disliking the practice as I grew older, for seeming childish. My grandma knitted all my gloves and mittens, and if keeping them safe by tying them to me felt infantalising, it was also certainly practical, since I was a very absent-minded kid who was forever losing and forgetting the stuff I was supposed to carry about: mittens, textbooks, PE kit, musical instruments. I recall more than one occasion on which my mum had to drive to the Ribble depot in Preston to retrieve the violin or clarinet which I’d once again managed to leave on the school bus (O happy days when local authorities were able to loan music-obsessed kids not one but two great instruments!). I must have been somewhat exasperating for my parents to have around.
But I suppose being absent-minded is really just about having other matters on one’s mind that seem much more pressing or more urgent . . and I’m still like that all these years later. I certainly envy those of multi-tasking temperament, who can do or remember several things at once . . . especially since my absent-mindedness (or, rather, single-mindedness) means I still have a tendency to leave things behind, or lose the odd glove or mitten.
But I no longer regard mittens on strings as childish: surely they are simply a super-practical solution for the absent-minded? So I recently wove myself a simple narrow band to secure my favourite winter mittens – these are sheepskin, not knitted, obviously, and are made with a small ring at the wrist, to enable a string or band to be attached, and threaded through the sleeves of one’s coat.
The mitten ring is quite small, and so is the lobster clasp I acquired to attach to it – and so I wove this band quite narrowly (I think I might have gone narrower still for a neater fit with the hardware)
It’s 45 warp threads in total on a background of 10/2 cotton, with 3/2 cotton for the central pattern threads, of which there are just 5.
This motif repeats over twelve picks, and is very simple and intuitive to weave. Though the pattern is not reversible, each side of the band has its own attractions (one of the many things I’m enjoying about this kind of weaving).
So as long as I don’t manage to forget my coat (always a possibility) my mittens are going nowhere!
KDD & Co 
Just love the way that whenever you need something Kate, you make a most beautiful solution.
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A good friend knit me a beautiful pair of Norwegian style mittens back when we were in university. I immediately crocheted a chain to attach to them and run through my coat so I didn’t lose them. I was teased but, as I pointed out, I wouldn’t lose my mittens like they did. When I knit mittens for children now, I always add on a chain so parents have the option.
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Nobody ever knit me mittens as a child, but my mother always sewed a pretty satin ribbon onto my store-bought mittens so they could be threaded through my coat sleeves, and I never found it bothersome or embarrassing. Funny to hear that others felt it was childish! I guess I must have been a practical soul even as a child, because I thought the idea was genius and really appreciated how it let me slip my mittens on and off at will while playing. Later on, ski mittens with built-in clips started to become popular, but I never liked them because they dragged and pulled at the cuffs of my coat, whereas my ribbon mittens hung on their own.
I think by the time I might have felt “too old” for ribbon mittens, I had already decided to eschew mittens and gloves entirely in favor of wearing my coats oversize and pulling my hands inside the sleeves. Hard to explain why this was A Thing, but to my tween self it was the height of gamine insouciance! I didn’t have another pair of mittens until I came to my senses as a young adult at university in an even colder region than the one I’d grown up in.
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loved this Julia, thankyou.
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I love the Sami-ness of your band against your red coat, Kate! It was the traditional Baltic/Scandinavian patterns and colourways that first hooked me in to backstrap weaving, but now I’m getting sidetracked by the palette available in Lithuanian linen . . . I’m enjoying reading about the uses you are finding for your bands; I’m thinking about straps for a water-bottle carrier, and for a money belt or tool holster. My key lanyard is so handy at work.
Also, I’m glad I’m not the only one to have left their school clarinet on the bus!
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I love the little woven band, but I also find myself coveting those beautiful mittens! Would you mind sharing where you bought them?
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I’ve had them several years, I’m afraid and don’t have a link – but where there are sheepskins, you’ll often find sheepskin mittens (places like the Shetland Tannery)
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Ohhhhh. THAT brings back memories of mittens knit by my grandmother. I remember how the cuffs of mittens stretched out to points where the cord was sewn on. I didn’t much like those cords, but at the same time I never lost a mitten….
Along the same lines (I think?) are traditional Scandinavian mittens that have short cords and/or pom-poms attached to the cuffs. I’ve always wondered about that. The cords are so ubiquitous that they’ve got to serve a purpose. Any ideas?
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This brings back memories of my childhood! My mom always put our mittens on icord string that traveled through our coats. I didn’t appreciate it as a child but I certainly do now that I knit mittens myself.
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That’s nicer than my i-cord sort!
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I think you need to start offering these for sale in your shop! This idea needs to make a comeback!
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That band looks so great (and perfect!) and the mittens are just tdf :)
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I appreciated your comment of Absent Mindedness as opposed to other things you could have said! Beautiful band and I have sent your site on to a woman I know who has started weaving bands. Thanks.
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Oh how I wish. Took a weaving class at my favourite yarn store Wet Coast Wools in Vancouver. I also bought myself a pair of fingerless gloves made from recycled cashmere sweaters at a local Christmas craft fair. While not expensive I was eyeing them for about three years, and after enjoying them for a month one has disappeared. Wish I had a lovely woven band or Anything!! You are so brilliant as usual. And I will try weaving one.
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I have recently begun making mittens for my adult grandchildren with a crocheted chain worked back on itself to form a loop. I attach it to the cuff so the mittens can be put on a carabiner clip. They are hikers and climbers, so carabiners are part of their gear.
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At the ripe old age of 60 I still have my mittens/gloves on a cord. I don’t find it at all embarrassing!
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hurrah!
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Rather than mittens tried to a long string that was threaded through the arms of one’s coat (so awkward to put on!), I remember having mittens that had a strong alligator clip on each cuff, so that each mitten clipped onto a coat sleeve. But your mitten strap is much prettier!
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Hehe, well I’m glad you approve of mittens on strings in conclusion. I had a long debate with myself at the start of winter about whether to inflict them on my toddler (there are some horrible caveats online involving strangulation), I felt sorry for his cold hands on back of my bike on the way to nursery. Strung on elastic, up the sleeves of his waterproof suit, to enable his movement, I am quite surprised the Tin Can Knits toddler size mitts in Rowan Felted Tweed have survived. I’ve been impressed how the yarn has felted further to a reasonably dense fabric. Perhaps not so surprising given how much sand and mud have been ground into them.
Mostly the elastic strung mitts serve to exaggerate his hand movements as they are usually hauled off his hands, the better to gesture and investigate stuff with and flap at his wrists. Just as well they are attached to him then!
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I have been thinking of knitting an icord for my next pair of mittens. I have already lost 2 color work mittens and I can’t bear to lose another hand knit item again! I have started weaving though and though I am weaving scarves and placemats, maybe I should consider weaving bands… by the way, those sheepskin mittens are beyond fabulous!
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The bands are less stretchy and a wee bit more sturdy than i-cord (or the i-cord I make anyway) and they are certainly as quick to make! I’ve recently seen some interesting i-cord-comparable weaving techniques (for making shoelaces and so on) which can also be done on an inkle loom
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Good point about the stretchiness. Well, now I feel inspired to weave some bands and knit more mittens. I think I also saw a type of cord woven on a loom with an i-cord like construction. I can’t wait to see your woven shoelaces.
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Thinking of selling such bands, Kate? I’d happily buy!
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ha – definitely not yet – I feel I’m just finding my feet with these techniques! Really happy you like them, though.
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Great!! Excellent use of perle cotton too.
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My aunt, who was the first knitter I knew, made mittens with the thumb on the side so they could be worn on either hand. She made a slew! We kept them in a basket and just replaced a lost one with another from the bunch. I don’t recall having them on a strap. If I had a strap like yours, I would definitely use it!!
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How I used to envy the children with their mittens attached to their coats as I was frequently in trouble for forgetting mine! I found out later that my mum didn’t do this as she thought that it would be embarrassing for me. You have made a great job of weaving that band and what a great use for it.
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I like the way you think:)
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