Are They Made Out of Money?

Yes! That is what those Madoff mittens were made from. Money. So I decided to make a pair for myself.



It took a few tries, and a few bucks, to figure out how one actually knits with money. As a fiber, money is essentially a carry-along to another yarn. I used cashmere for my base yarn, though: it only seemed right.

As much as I love my Denise Interchangeable Needles, the tool you need for this project is a finger-amputatingly sharp X-acto knife. You can use your needle gauge as a straight edge to cut one-eighth inch strips of money. But please make sure you do this in the privacy of your own home, with the shades down, and the children out of the house. The penalty for defacing money is severe, and you don't want to take a family member down with you.

Because no one wants to waste cashmere, I recommend swatching first. My gauge here was 4 stitches and seven rows per inch, on size five needles.

Using my excellent knitter math skills, I figure it takes 64 dollar bills per mitten. That's $128 per pair, plus two skeins of cashmere totalling $72, for a total of $200.