Another Purpose

Mittens, gloves, and other things that cover your hands vary from latex gloves to keep your dentist’s germs out of your mouth to mitts with built-in sandpaper for smoothing sheetrock joints. There are work gloves of leather, work gloves of cloth and rubber, dusting mitts, painter’s gloves, gardening gloves—endless ways to cover your hands for various chores and jobs. There are beautiful lace gloves and gloriously fine dress gloves, which, arguably, are not for warmth.

When I was a young, single, working girl in Washington D.C., we wore white cotton or nylon gloves to work every day. While they made us look cute and dressed up, their main purpose was to protect us from grime on the city buses.

So, a different purpose than warmth and love.

Unlike most of the gloves above, the two mittens given here are usually made by hand—a scrubby bath mitt and a tiny mitten to kiss-off an unwanted suitor.

I’ll bet you don’t find any other patterns for them anywhere.