Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Fit for purpose...  (Read 3614 times)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Fit for purpose...
« on: January 10, 2015, 10:35:14 am »
One of the things I am enjoying the most is creating clothes and smaller items for myself that exactly fit my requirements.  With jumpers now, I spin the sleeves and lower fronts worstead, for extra hardwearingness, and the upper front body more woollen, to be lighter weight and warmer.  After my trip to Shetland, on which I learned so much, I am now plotting how to use the 'halo' of Shetland wool (and others which do similar) to full (semi-felt) into a hard-wearing and impermeable work garment - as they do and have done for centuries on Shetland.

Out and about on the farm I now have my humungous 3ply native breeds jumper (see other thread), my apparently indestructible handspun hat and now I also have my bespoke Farmer's Quad Bike Gloves.  I'm still working on the design, and they're not aesthetic, but boy are they functional!  And warm!  There's an inner very long fingerless glove which comes right up to the fingertips with a long thumb also open only at the very tip, made of soft alpaca-mix yarn, attached internally at the wrist to an outer split mitten with a long stretchy cuff.  The mitt has a crossover across the palm, giving enough stretch to allow the hand to grip the handlebar without exposing any of the finger- or thumb tips, but also allowing just the thumb to be external on the 'trigger hand' for the throttle lever, or the whole hand to be 'externalised' (still in its inner fingerless mitt) should more dexterity be required.

When you come to do something which needs fingers, you can bring the fingers forward and out of the mitt part; they're still warm in the fingerless glove but usable. 

The inner glove is very stretchy, so I very rarely find I need more freedom to use my fingers, but if I do, I can fold the end of the inner glove back like a cuff.  If that still isn't enough, being made all in one, if you do need to remove them completely, the whole thing comes off and goes back on in one without any problem.

Because you can get your fingers free to use easily, you can pull the second glove on and set its cuff how you want it without any problem, then duck the fingers on the first hand back inside their own glove.

Being all wool (well apart from the bit of alpaca in the inner glove), they are still warm even if they get wet.  With a very close-knit fairly fine inner, and a 3-ply thick outer, they provide good protection from the wind.  Best gloves I've had for a farmer-with-quad-bike, by far!  :D

You can tell from the way I write about them, every problem I've had with every other glove, and combination of gloves, is addressed in this design!

The only downside I've found so far is that the end of the mitt does wear; last year I just had the throttle-hand one, and had to darn the tip of the outer glove after the first winter.  However, that still makes them longer-lasting than any other glove, or combination of gloves, I've ever tried!  And given that I can keep darning them, and/or reknitting the end of the mitt, I can probably keep them going forever!

The outer edge of the inner glove will probably need overstitching / darning in time too - but again, being handmade, even if I needed to discard the top inch or so and reknit, it wouldn't be a problem.

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2015, 12:03:18 pm »
Could you fit some sort of plastic bit to the part that wears? I tend to use a cheap pair of gloves with a pair of latex/vinyl gloves on the top. The top layer doesn't last long but it does keep my cheap pair dry.
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2015, 01:58:38 pm »
Could you fit some sort of plastic bit to the part that wears? I tend to use a cheap pair of gloves with a pair of latex/vinyl gloves on the top. The top layer doesn't last long but it does keep my cheap pair dry.

Or leather, like elbow patches on a jumper?
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2015, 02:46:40 pm »
I have thought about using leather - but have worried that, as these are outer layer apparel, leather would get wet and deform on drying, need feeding, might pull the stitches out of shape...

I don't mind darning once or twice a year ;)



Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2015, 04:53:06 pm »
You'll never find another pair like them, that's for sure  ;D  What are they like in the wet?  Do they stay warm, but dry inside? 
One of the things I love about hand-knit items is that you can reknit any bits which need it, like the axe which has had its handle replaced, and its blade replaced several times, but it's still the same axe  :D

Finding a way of keeping your hands warm in any particular situation can make the difference between enjoyment and misery.  I bought cycling gloves for my eldest grandson, who cycles to college in all weathers, right through the winter, a Scottish winter.  He had asked for ski gloves but in spite of being cosy, they are useless in the rain.  Motorcycle gloves can be warm and even waterproof if you spend enough on them (although knowing in my grandson's case they'll be lost in a short time it's not worth getting high end) they aren't really flexible enough for cycling, and too bulky.  I haven't had a report back yet, so I don't know if the advertising blurb for the ones we got him (waterproof lobster claw mitts with thermo linings) is truthful.
When I rode a motorbike throughout the winter, many winters, I used to wear 4 pairs of gloves: silk liners, lightweight woollen liners, leather 'normal' bike gloves, then waterproof Barbour mitts over the top.  The advantage of a bike is that when your hands nonetheless get cold, you take it in turns for each one to rest on the engine as you ride along  :thumbsup:  Can you do that on the quad Sally, or is it fully enclosed?
Nowadays I suffer from cold hands, cold feet and a cold nose  :dog:.  Hands and feet I can deal with, but a nose is more difficult.  A scarf slips down, a balaclava doesn't leave room for my hat and makes my goggles steam up in a blizzard.  How does everyone else prevent frostbite on the nose?  Sally - you need to design something  :cold:
« Last Edit: January 10, 2015, 04:57:17 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2015, 05:24:27 pm »
Just back from using the gloves (and jumper) in a driving wet blizzard :cold:

I did need a raincoat over the jumper, but the raincoat is no longer anything like 100%, and the jumper kept the wet from reaching my body.  :thumbsup:

Now I need to do the same for my legs  :thinking:

To answer your question about the gloves in the wet, FW, they do get wet at the ends, where there is just the one layer, but the hands, including fingers and thumbs, inside the inner-and-outer layers remain dry and warm.  The darned one performs better than the newer one, actually, so I may have to rethink the stitch pattern for the ends of the mitts for future versions :thinking:

There is some warmth from the engine on the quad, yes, but there's no possibility of giving the right hand a break as it has to have its thumb on the silly little throttle lever all the time  >:(.  That's partly how I came up with this design in the first place, needing a glove which would keep the exposed thumb (especially) warm even when motoring along.  I'd used all kinds of gloves-inside-other-gloves, wristwarmers-over-gloves, and so on, including motorbike 100% waterproof leather gloves (absolutely hopeless; as soon as you stop to do a job the water runs back down your arm and into the inside of the glove  ::)), neoprene gloves supposedly completely warm once wet (yeah, right  ::)), but couldn't find a solution where I either didn't have to take them off at all, even if I had a fiddly job to do (knotting baler twine around something being a good, and frequent, example!  :D), or if I did have to take them off, they were (a) easy to get back on and (b) still kept me warm and dry once they were back on.

Re: the cold nose, FW, I have a snood type thingy.  At the moment it's a thin 'fleece' (being poly-something, made of plastic, not fleece, of course) but in fact it's incredibly versatile and I am quite happy with it.  It's a fleece snood with a long polyester neck sleeve attached, similar to this one.  (And yes, I did pay nearly that for it, and it's worth every penny.  I'd had one half-price first, thankfully, so when I lost that I knew just how useful an item it is and didn't dither too long about buying a full-price replacement.  I've had this one more than five years, so I think it's paid for itself.) 

To wear in winter, I pull it over my head, thin end first, leaving the fleecey part ruffled up around my chin.  If it gets very cold, I just lift this part up over my mouth or mouth-and-nose, as required.  The stretchiness of the fleece holds it in place.  Because of the long attached sleeve, you don't get a cold bit where the snood now isn't when you pull it up, and because the sleeve is thin material, the whole thing isn't too bulky nor too hot.

It also can be pulled up around and over the back of the hat, to keep any draughts from the back of the neck.  My jumper now has a built-in one of these, but in today's and yesterday's weather I've still used the multifunction snood thingy as well.

Sometimes I have the fleece bit in my neck and use the thinner part up and over the hat to anchor it.

In warmer but windy weather I still sometimes use the multifunction snood thingy as a headscarf.  I put it on as normal, then pull it back up, as though to take it off, but stop as the thinner bit is holding my hair in place against my head.  Or if it's a little cooler, do the same thing the other way around, so the fleecey part is the headscarf.

I have thought about how I could make something as useful and versatile from natural fibres, but haven't yet come up with anything.  Of course, now I am starting weave... :thinking: :excited:  ;D
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2015, 01:50:19 am »
Ah - a buff  ;D  The most expensive one I saw was £121.75  :o :o :o

I'll definitely give one of them a go Sally - thanks.  My cold weather hat is one of those Norwegian earflap things, very thick, so the buff might not fit over that, but would be great to hold a normal woolly hat in place.  Woolly hats on me for some reason tend to slide upwards and disappear off the top of my head........
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2015, 12:28:07 pm »
I have the same problem with woolly - or indeed any - hats; something about the slipperiness of my hair, I've never been able to keep any hat (except a fisherman's hat, strangely) in place if my hair is down (except when I had it cropped short.)  So I keep my hair long enough to be twisted into a rope, which, if I will be wearing the hat for more than a few minutes, I coil and stuff up inside the hat.  So long as the hat material has enough 'body', it then stays put. 

I made a really lovely hat from Southdown I'd dyed myself, pic attached, but it was so soft and springy I couldn't keep it on.  Hair down the hat slid off, hair up the weight of the hair pulled the hat off within 10 minutes.  So my sister had a nice present... ;)

I'm trying to remember whether I put my hair in a pony tail when I wear the Buff as a headscarf in warmer weather... :thinking:  Can't remember; I think I can wear it loose or tied up.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2015, 05:01:09 pm »
I remember you showing a pic of that hat before. I think it's lovely. Your sister must be very pleased
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

madcat

  • Joined Mar 2014
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2015, 09:21:53 am »
Love the hat, it looks both pretty and warm .

madcat

  • Joined Mar 2014
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2015, 09:24:12 am »
I forgot to add, any chance of photos of your gloves? 

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2015, 10:06:18 am »
I forgot to add, any chance of photos of your gloves?

They are not things of beauty!  lol .  But will try to get pics of them for you. 
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2015, 11:31:51 am »
Well, I bought a couple of buffs - one for him and one for me.  Mine is xinyang - red Chinese dragons on a black background.  I couldn't ignore dragons, now could I  :innocent: 
We both love our buffs, just round our necks to stop the draughts, indoors and out.  Outside we also wear them up over our noses, but haven't had much success with any other ways of wearing them.  I also bought a polar buff (must have been feeling rich that day  ::)) which turned out to be a double fabric the whole way, rather than one end being fleece and the other microfibre.  I found it quite tight but Mr F likes it for the coldest weather.
Thanks for the tip Sally  :thumbsup:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fit for purpose...
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2015, 11:45:20 am »
Phew!  :relief:  Glad you like them - it's always a bit nerve-wracking, recommending something for someone else!  We're all different, what suits one person may not suit another.

Of course you found one with dragons on!   :D  Great stuff!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

 

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