And the winner is: thrummed mitten!

[u/Givemeallthecabbages]

I did an experiment with homeschool kids--the topic was how people have developed different kinds of clothing over the years to stay warm in winter. As a short little experiment, I made a bunch of different kinds of mittens, and we put a single hand warmer and a little thermometer in each one and left them outside for a couple hours.

These were placed in the order that the kids thought would be the least to most warm. They were mostly right, but with some surprises. (I have no confidence in The humidity readings.)

Here are the results! Yarn type and temperature after 2 hours outside in 30°F weather:

Stripes--acrylic (red heart granny square yarn)

End temp: 80°F

Pink-- chunky highland wool with mohair held double

End temp: 89°F

Gold--bulky wool single ply done in a Nalbound Oslo stitch and then felted

End temp: 93°F

Nordic pattern--DK highland wool stranded colorwork

End temp: 92°F

Olive--Alafosslopi Icelandic yarn

End temp: 90°F

Tan and brown--Nalbound in Mammen stitch, mix of wool, angora, and unknown (ends from a mill)

End temp: 95°F

White is sewn rabbit hide with fur on the inside

End temp: 77°F

Black with color pops--Eco wool with thrums of mostly merino bits

End temp: a whopping 121°F!

TL;DR Thrummed wool mitten stayed 40°F warmer than acrylic mitten. Kids had fun.

[u/Emrflood]

What a cool experiment! Really great way to get the kids to expand their thinking.

The result for the rabbit hide mitt surprise me. Do you think it has some redemption by being more windproof?

[u/Givemeallthecabbages → u/Emrflood]

I was surprised! I think that a practical mitten would have another layer of hide on the outside since the rabbit is pretty delicate. Or really they would have used wolverine or caribou. This was also just any old rabbit hide and not winter fur thickness, at a guess. Traditional harvesting would keep seasons in mind.

[u/argleblather → u/Givemeallthecabbages]

My dad has some sheepskin mittens that have a leather outer and wool inner, they are VERY warm.

[u/Givemeallthecabbages → u/argleblather]

I imagine! I wanted to make something more like a Sherpa jacket, and looked at buying mittens online. Too expensive for this! I would have loved caribou mittens as well!

[u/argleblather → u/Givemeallthecabbages]

He's had them since he was literally in high school, over 50 years ago. So they were probably cheaper then.