I found your mitten | Hacker News Reader

I found your mitten

tapestry.is

23 pointsslbedard18 comments

Jennifer Gooch worked on an identical art project at least 5 years ago. The website used to be onecoldhand.com, but it seems to be a link farm now.

You can read more about Jennifer's project at http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/innovation/2008/winter/one-cold-... or watch a presentation about this project at http://www.allartburns.org/dorkbot/dorkbot-200801-jenn.m4v (244 Mb M4V)

That's very cute. But the pedant in me will not let this pass without noting that many of what you've found are in fact gloves. Mittens do not have fingers. I'm sorry to have to point that out :) On the other hand (groan) you are helping the semi-gloveless too, so well done for that.

I wonder - is a mitten a type of glove, or is a glove a type of mitten? Or is it neither, or both, or does it depend on where you live?

To me, a mitten is a type of glove. But I'd be willing to believe that where the author lives the semantic relationship is commonly understood to be the other way around.

>I wonder - is a mitten a type of glove, or is a glove a type of mitten? Or is it neither, or both, or does it depend on where you live?

It's 2013, you don't have to wonder. Look it up!

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mitten

That entry just has a definition and some etymological notes. At best, it only tells you what one particular source on the subject has to say.

It does absolutely nothing to address the entirety of my question - an answer to that would require some comparative scholarship on actual usage in various regions.

The perspective of Google Images:

http://www.google.com/search?q=mitten&tbm=isch

The definitions I found online for each of those items leads me to believe that neither is a subset of the other. A mitten is usually defined by mentioning the "four finger compartment" and the separate thumb compartment. Where as a glove is usually defined by mentioning a separate compartment for each finger/thumb. Using those definitions, one item can not exist in both groups. The caveat to this is that the info is only as reliable as the Internet is... so there is that.

No, a glove is defined as a covering for the hand. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=glove

A mitten is defined as a "half glove" http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=mitten

So all mittens are also gloves.

That's the etymology, not the definition. Just because a word once meant something doesn't mean it still does.

EDIT:

"a covering for the hand made with a separate sheath for each finger and for the thumb." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/glove

"a hand covering enclosing the four fingers together and the thumb separately." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mitten

Again... only as good as the Internet will allow. (Unless of course you consult offline docs)

But these common online dictionaries disagree with you. These are the two that I usually use and they both agree so I did not go looking further. I'm sure there are other dictionaries that might not define them this way.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/glove

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glove

and

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mitten

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mitten

Boxing gloves are actually a type of mitten, but are named gloves. I submit that as (very weak) evidence that mittens are a subset of gloves.

re: the glove vs. mitten controversy, i would like to note that there are rules to ifoundyourmitten. i do not accept work gloves or plastic gloves as contributions. however as gloves or perhaps 'fingered mittens' as i might call them... do keep hands warm during the winter- i think they are acceptable contributions.

I totally agree! But I found your glove isn't any where nearly as cute sounding.

I'm thinking that it would be very interesting to make a search tool for this kind of things using color searching technology like in this thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5180830

Brilliant! I've often thought about doing something like this... but with shoes. Except mine was more of a market place where people who found one single shoe could trade with other people that needed a match... even if they were not originally belonging to the same person. Obviously my idea is doomed to flop... but it sounded funny.

thank god someone found my mitten! it's the one on slide #3. thanks @slbedard!!

There is a lost gloves collection at Oxo: http://www.oxo.com/UniversalDesign.aspx #ifoundmanymittens

Sort of like dating app for mittens? :)

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