by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
January in Maine is a bitterly cold month, clogged with ice and snow, and it will be here all too soon. Arctic air will seep down from the North Pole making warm mittens essential for everyone, especially children.
But for one 8-year-old child, who has mental and physical challenges, mittens were a
source of endless frustration. He was able to put on one mitten, all by himself, his mother told me. But once that mitten was on one hand, he was unable to put on the other mitten. More than anything, he wanted to put on both mittens — all by himself.
After my conversation with the boy’s mother, I started thinking about the mitten dilemma. Was
it possible to knit a pair in such a way that it would enable the child to put on both mittens, all
by himself? And if so, what would those alterations look like?
The act of putting on a mitten usually requires a thumb and forefinger approach to grasp the
edge of the mitten opening, which is narrow due to the ribbing. Perhaps, once the child had pulled on one mitten, the thumb and forefinger gambit to pull on the other mitten was impossible for who knows what reason.
But what if the opening were wider and there was more surface area for the fingers to grasp
when it came time to put on the other mitten?
OK, I thought, let’s eliminate the ribbing.
I chose wool yarn in a pretty shade of blue, the boy’s favorite color. I used my old-standby,
favorite pattern from my vintage copy of “Glove and Mittens to Knit for the Entire Family.” I
followed the directions as given, except I omitted the ribbed cuff, creating a stockinette
fabric which has a natural tendency to roll. Thus, instead of a ribbed cuff, I had a rolled cuff.
I also made the thumb opening three stitches larger than the pattern called for. This, I thought
would make it easier for the boy’s thumb to find the opening and slip into.
My hope was that the rolled cuff would eliminate the thumb and forefinger method of
pulling on the mitten and allow the thumb and all four fingers to come into play — a grab motion instead of a pincer one.
When the mittens were finished, I used the tail of the yarn at the cast on edge to loosely tack
down the rolled edge, to provide stability as the mittens were pulled on.
The mittens looked pretty good, but would they solve the dilemma for the boy?
I wrapped the mittens in tissue paper, tucked them into a padded envelope and mailed the
package. In a week or so, I received an email from the boy’s mother. Her son had, indeed,
been able to put on both mittens — all by himself — causing a great deal of pride and joy in his accomplishment, and greatly reducing his mitten frustration.
I don’t know if rolled cuff mittens will work for other children with mental and physical challenges, but I wanted to let other knitters know about what worked for the little boy of my acquaintance, in case they know children who also experience mitten frustration.