Fire Oven Mittens (F.O.M.)

This is a pattern for double-knit oven mittens using a Japanese kanji character “火 (Fire)” as a motif. The character is a pictographic representation of a fire. I added other elements of fires around the character, such as sparks. The design on the cuff area is reminiscent of an item used by Japanese firefighters in the Edo period, called Matoi. Matoi was used to identify different groups of fierfighters, and each group had an intricate Matoi design to raise fighters’ morale.

Fighting fires was an important mission for big cities like Edo (former Tokyo), as the flammable wood houses were crammed into small areas and water sources were scarc e. It is my hope that these mittens will protect you from burns and other unwanted incidents.