Mittens Are Warm

Wandering the mountains in the winter will convince any sober individual of the need for keeping your digits in working order.  Snowboarding, snowshoeing, skiing and winter fishing worked on my hands in a most uncomfortable fashion until I discovered the mitten.  It was on a particularly cold winter day while snowboarding that I lost a glove on the lift.  My good friend's father was ski patrol and had gotten us on the mountain half day for free and I had a few dollars in my rather sad looking wallet.  Into the skin-you-alive shop also known as the gear shop I went.  On the rack were a sexy new pair of gloves complete with leathery palm bits all at a minor cost of way more than I had or the clearance bin mittens in XL which felt thinner than my long johns on insulation.  So I am on my way up the lift with my new mittens when I notice something strange.  My hands are warmer than I can recall them ever having been in my gloves.  Converted I was.

Fast forward two decades and several pairs of fingerless rag wools and mitten shells later.  Today my obsession lies firmly in the aquatic realm of sea kayaking, or more specifically Greenland style sea kayaking.  Having completed a Tuilik and a pair of mittens to go with them I decided to improve on the design.  Pair one consisted 4 bits of neoprene sewed to produce a mitten.  Pair two consisted of the same basic design as pair one but with sleeker lines and a better cinch cord.  Pair three have taken a new road. 

Wandering on the qajaq influenced web I stumbled across some images of mittens made and used in the arctic.  With what I gather is a rather chilly climate it was simple enough to reckon that these gloves must be rather well designed.  A far better understanding of gear and its both inherent vulnerabilities and those which can be mitigated started to take shape.  A sewn garment is at its weakest at the seam.  This is especially true for waterproof items.  It became clear to me.  The next phase in my mitten quest would involve an attempt at significantly reducing seamed lengths.

The perfect guinea pig in any case is a monkey.  But since all I have handy is my 19 month old daughter Lili she'll have to do.  With Lili's hand placed ever so cutely on a clipboard her hand and forearm were traced.  Then a general silhouette was produced of her hand.  This with some seam allowance added was copied three times onto another piece of paper.  Modifications were made to provide fabric for the thumb and voila, glove.

My dear little girl put them on with a bit of help and proceeded to wear them from the living room to the bathtub and then after some wringing out with a towel, to bed.  The next step will be to take this general pattern idea and produce some paddling mittens which will hopefully fit well, be comfortable on the paddle, have minimal seams as well as good seam placement and provide a watertight seal along the seams and at the wrist cinch cord.

Tuilik

Creating a tuilik has been a journey of procrastination.  Shawn Baker's pattern was invaluable  Qajaq USA Patter.  However some clarification on the process of joinery would have been helpful.  It is my goal to provide this insight to you reader whoever you may be.
I chose to join the neoprene (2mm smooth/jersey, from http://hookloopoutlet.com/neoprene-sheets--nylon---smooth-skin.html with hand sewing and aquaseal (I bought scads of Aquaseal from ebay as the price annihilated the dive shop price).  I received the rubber and promptly played on it with my 19 month old daughter Lili.  Lili is an excellent judge of all things kayak so her approval was very much appreciated.

The lines were drawn, cuts were made and procrastinator-y confusion ensued.  After begging a friend to sew it for me, attempting a glue only joint (I slept through the part where the glue was ready to join) and fiddling with my dear spouses sewing machine, it was determined that hand stitching would be the ticket.

Much to my surprise this process went fairly quickly and in two evenings a tuilik took shape.  In conjunction with heckling John and Paul while they worked away on Abby (John's new boat), glue was spread or rather glopped onto the tuilik seams.  I had my doubts as to how effective this approach would be, but as evidenced by my paddling this afternoon in the jacket success was had!  Soonish, when the poor thing is given the time to dry out..., a seam sealing coat will be added to the inside as well.


The perfect compliment to this tuilik and the opportunity granted by having adequate neoprene left over for such an enterprise, a pair of mittens were crafted as well.  They came together quite simply with some paper pattern play, stitching,  and a little Aquaseal sealant.

The final touch will be the addition of a bungee cinch strap to seal them to my wrists and then voila, finito, I'm done.


It is my wish that some web drifter searching for tuilik demystification will alight upon this page and be emboldened to see it through.  Good luck and pleasant paddling.

Dawn is complete.  She is 18' 4"  and beautiful.  Abby and Charlotte are in the mix.  Abby has ribs.  Charlotte possesses two sequoia wood beams, very cool.  John has taught us the behind the neck roll and is dangling his spine roll in plain view for Paul and I to match.  Kayaking is great fun.

We had a wonderful day at Morro Bay in California.  Otters, very large seals and some amazing fish tacos.  Life is so sweet.