The Making of My Bitchin' Bondage Mittens - An Original Otter Design

My mittens didn't end up as I intended them to be, but I am happy with them.

Here's what I went through to get where I ended up.

Back when Dave first mentioned the Bitchin' Mittens KAL I knew what I wanted to do... in a rough way. I knew I wanted to to use leather along with some really soft wool and metal as well. I did that, although not as I imagined it.

Here is the original drawing I did and what I was planning on doing. My Bitchin' Bondage Mittens.

Top down, lace cuff at the top, leading into some sturdy leather cuffing with metal loops to connect the mittens to the chains, red and yellow, with some white intarsia flames on a background of black, another bit of black leather cuffing with more metal chains and then a solid black mitten. The drawing makes it look longer than I intended, btw. It was to start just below the elbow.

A few weeks ago I did a swatch in leather in straight needles and it was cool looking. It was a small swatch though and I didn't get the magnitude of how hard this would be on my hands to knit the amount of leather cuffing I wanted. In the last ten days or so I tried different needle sizes from US 00 all the way up to US 10. I've learned that knitting on straights is much easier than  knitting with leather in the round on DPN's. Unfortunately I didn't allot myself enough time to work on this and thought I could whip them up in ten days or so. This was not to be. During the last ten days of the competition I tried everything and no matter how I did it my hands were just getting beaten. Thursday of last week I went to Tandy Leather to look for softer leather lacing to work with. The hard tight shiny leather I had been using was causing my hands to feel bruised and burnt as if I had been holding a rope that slipped very fast through my hands. I had freaking rope burns from the stuff. o.0 Not cool. Plus my hands were just aching and stiff.

Here is a picture I took before I ripped the metal chain out so I could use it. Black is hard to photograph. Black leather is ridiculous to photograph. Sucks all the light up into a black pit of despair. My eyes are fucking killing me from working with the stuff. o.0

At Tandy I picked up a spool of softer suede leather in back to try out. I also grabbed a big piece of black treated leather. One side was soft suede and the other a shinned supple leather. I got that with the intention of sewing the hand portion of the mittens. I figured the soft suede would be good as it was another interesting sensation that the wearer (me) would feel when wearing the mittens. It was Thursday and the mittens were due by Monday and I knew I likely wouldn't have time to knit the hand portions as well as doing the intarsia flames I intended to do on the arms. (hello I'm so delusional I thought I still had time for that *L*)

Friday was still dead and my hands were basically cramped claws so I didn't do much other than worry and plan.

Saturday I knit some cuffing with the new softer leather. Not easier on the hands. The suede was basically a fine grade sandpaper to work with. But I pressed on anyway. The finished product was so painful to wear and rubbed my skin raw from just putting it on that I knew it wasn't going to work. I went to bed without making any progress and now my hands were killing me even more.

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early and got to work on the mittens. First I drew a few mitten tracings around my hand onto tissue paper to see about the sizing. Once I had a shape I thought would work I cut it out and pinned it to some scrap carrot material I had leftover from my KSKS bag. The first one I made was mostly find, but the cuff was a bit tight. So I redid the pattern making it a little wider at the cuff. I also made it overall a little larger so that it looked better. Once that worked out I used that as my actual pattern for when I cut the leather.

The left mitten in the image was the first one I tried. The second mitten was used as the actual leather mitten pattern. (I of course used in turned inside out)

I broke a lot of pins trying to pin the pattern to the fabric... so I had to get creative and used some office supply clips as I went along. They were GREAT for when I was doing the actual sewing up.

This is the soft inside when I was sewing them up.


Didn't hurt the leather and kept it all in place. I didn't use an Awl or hole punch as Dave mentioned in a comment, but rather a leather piercing needle. It's a needle with 3 razor sharp edges that comes to a wicked ouchie point at the end. I only did more damage to my thump and index finger of my right hand with that thing. I had a leather thimble, but it just slowed me down and by the time I was onto this portion of the mittens it was Sunday afternoon and I didn't have time to be screwing around. My hands were getting numb kinda so it was okay. >.>

<.<

My shoulders and arms were killing me by this point too as I had been going nonstop at this. *L* It counts as a workout!

shut up

Okay so by Sunday night I had two mitten hands and the very tops of the cuff. I still had hope though.

Here is my Sunday night progress and when I was trying one on. (hard to take a picture of your own arm like that, btw)

At this point I decided to go with some simple stripes and set the Intarsia flames aside for another time.

Here is a shot of my Sunday Evening Sky when I was taking a break.

At ten I decided to call it a night and start fresh the next day... the last day.

Monday, the final day of Bitchin' Mittens dawned and I was tired and bleary eyed. I was a mess over here. *L* Many cups of tea and I was on my mitten making way.

I finished the complete cuff of on mitten sometime in the afternoon. I then discovered a new problem. How to sew the mitten cuff onto the leather portion of the mitten. After trying a few things that didn't work out I grabbed a bottle of wine... and used it as an arm form to hold the mittens while I sewed them up. *L*

And yes there was drinking going on during this process. :P

There is still leather in the mittens cuffs. It's in with the black portions to reinforce the knitting so the chains and locks don't pull it out of shape or hurt the wool. Cookie asked if the locks would hold. Yes, they do. ;^) If anything they are one of the strongest pieces of the mittens, along with the chains. That is why I needed the leather to add strength and durability to the cuffing. Very sturdy and usable.

Here is a picture of the sewing up on the wine bottle. Hard as fuck to get a shot of this. Weird light and the black just sucks the light away. My eyes they are DEAD. o.0

I finished the mittens off at 8:30 and the deadline was 9:00 (midnight Eastern). One cuff is slightly shorter, but not really noticeable when wearing them. I had camera uploading issues and then wordpress logging in issues so that half an hour to photograph the mittens and post was very stressful and rushed. It was like that TV show 24 over here. *L* Every minute counted. There near the end I just closed my eyes to finish up the knitting because it was faster, plus my eyes were killing me and it was blurry anyway.

I had planned a really cool photo idea for the mittens, but alas time was short and my patience and sanity were shorter. I tried to get my honey to take a picture of me wearing them, but he couldn't get what I was saying and they weren't right. So in the actual pictures that I posted he is wearing the mittens. Doesn't look right. *L*

At 8:59 I sent Dave a desperate email explaining how I couldn't get into TypePad. Then they sent me a new password and I could get in.

Here are the final pictures I posted: (The leather is what makes the black sections pop out a little)

I'm very pleased with my mittens, although now I wish I hadn't spent so much time messing with knitting that leather. The knuckles on my index and middle fingers of my left hand was a puffy swollen stiff place. Sunday when I was done I couldn't unclench my fingers. Probably not the best way to go about knitting some mittens, but there you go. :P My fingers are sore, cut up in a few places and in general very ouchie. So I've taken the last two days off from knitting. My hands are still sore, but much better now. I'm going to start my Red Scarf Project next. Need to have a think about the yarn. I may be doing a dye over later today.

I'm also taking a break from the black and hot pink kitty blankey as I don't want to knit with black for a while. o.0

There were tears, blood/bruises and several hundred curse words during this process, but I did it. It wasn't what I had planned out, but it still works. I think I'll make the pair I had intended to make at some future date. *L* We'll see. Maybe I'll make them without the leather bits and just make them mittens you know for like wearing in the cold. :P

Comments

[Cookie]

How cool!

And you forgot to mention that all sewing was done by hand.

o.0

[Dave Daniels]

OH.MY.FRIGGIN.WORD!
All o' that for a pair o' mittens?
They really are cool, and all the talk of the Secret Judges. You're that last one in under the wire, and with quite a showing!
So, um, are those chains used to secure the shovel when you clear the front walk in winter?
**ducking and running, and hiding from the whip**

[Devorah]

I think that the chains are for choking obnoxious commentors. Am I right?

Cool story -- sorry about the state of your hands. I hope they heal quickly. Definitely a lesson for the rest of us.

[Ann]

Wow..I was impressed with those mittens BEFORE I heard the story of how they came to be.

You should be very proud of your work...they are a hoot!

I hope you make it into the Bitchin' Mittens winner's circle!