Nov 24, 2013

The Modern Hibbard Mitten...

I don't know about you but I hate it when the temperature plummets and I want to go out painting. My fingers are extremely sensitive to cold because when I was sixteen I almost gave myself frostbite on a sub-zero January day. If you ever are frostbitten you remain prone to it happening again the rest of your life. I can verify that if you almost get frostbitten you are also more prone to it again.

I keep buying different wool and fleece gloves, and mitts, and fingerless gloves, and glove/mitt combos, and crack-n-heat packets, and thinsulate liners – even electrified gloves – with the hope I can find a solution to painting during the winter. But heat packets don't disperse heat very well and gloves constrict the circulation around my fingers, and every mitt I've worn makes my hand feel like a lobster claw.

So when I read about the Hibbard Mitten I thought I'd give it a try. You take an old knit scarf and sew it into a pouch. Then you stick it over your hand and push a brush handle through the weave. Wow! Coverage and brush control! (Click here. to view some Aldo Hibbard snowscapes.)

So I asked my wife to make me one. She said, "No, you dummy, just stick a wool hiking sock over your hand and cut a hole in it."

"Doh!..."



With video assistance from fellow outdoor painter Brenda Boylan
(Facebookers who can't see this video, click here)


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4 reader comments:

Laura said...

Hilarious! and useful!

Tim Young said...

Love it.

jjwoodee said...

I'll be giving this a go up in the mountains of Vermont with Stape Kearns. Thanks for posting.

Thomas Jefferson Kitts said...

Sounds great jj. Let us know how it goes. Although in Stape's winter workshop I might suggest that you use two socks on your painting hand. (Use a larger sock on the outside to minimize constriction.)

And please give Stapleton hello from me. I hope to meet him someday soon.