Chipmunk Mittens

Once upon a time there were two little boy in the early 50's who loved to play with their chipmunk mittens lovingly made for them by their mother. Those were my brothers with the mittens, and I only have one single loan mitten as a reminder of those mittens long ago. When I can find that photo I will post it.

It fits a very small hand. Both my mom and I tried to find the pattern so that I could make these adorable mittens for my own daughters when they were young. In all, I've been searching for the pattern for about 20 years. Recently I directed the play, A CHRISTMAS STORY, and a little boy who played the lead character's little brother, would often be directed to be on stage and to keep himself quietly entertained while a scene was going on. To help him, I loaned him this lone mitten to play with. He became inseparable from the mitten, and it was so cute watching him on stage having imaginary conversations with his chipmunk. His mother told me she would give anything in order to be able to give him a pair for his upcoming 6th birthday. Once again, I searched hard...and thanks to all the new ways of locating vintage patterns, I found it!!! I couldn't believe it. I made one mitten only to discover it was HUGE. Well, it definitely fit an adult's hands. So I decreased the needle size in half. It is still twice as big as the original, but here is the result.

I put the original mitten in the photo so that you can see the size difference. Just in time for this boy's birthday. His mom was so excited when I told her that not only did I find the pattern, but I made a pair for him. I hope to post a photo of the little boy wearing his mittens. Happy ending!