By Isla Quinn
Wet wool. A cold wind off the water. A finger that has to find a trigger, a knot, a hook.
That is the job the Newfoundland trigger mitt was knitted for. Saltscapes magazine, in a 2021 book review, says these mitts are partial gloves: they keep the hands warm and leave the fingers free, so the wearer keeps dexterity. It names tending traps, cutting firewood and firing a gun as the work they suited.
What the word means
A trigger mitt is a mitten with a free finger. A vamp is something else, and the sources pin it down in only one place. Memorial University’s intangible cultural heritage inventory calls vamps “hand knit footwear that are half-way between socks and slippers.” A publisher’s information sheet for a pattern book lists them as “vamps (slippers).” The two descriptions fit together, though neither says how a vamp is cut.
A tradition that was spoken, not written
According to Saltscapes, Newfoundlanders have fished the sea and worked the land and forests for five centuries, and wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts knit the mittens during long evenings at home. It says instructions were usually passed on by word of mouth and that, as synthetic fibres and manufactured goods arrived, many designs were lost. It also says knitted goods were often overlooked by artistic circles and rarely given to museums, unlike rug hooking and quilting.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Historical Society advertises a lecture on the subject under the title “Cuffs, Vamps, Trigger Mitts and Drawers.” The page says “our saucy weather has always demanded warm clothes in all seasons,” that some items are rooted in European knitting traditions, and that others were invented by “industrious Livyers” who needed warmth while working. It does not define the term, and it names no dates beyond a 1989 book on Canadian knitting by the lecturer.
What the mittens were used for
The publisher’s page for the book says woollen mittens were worn for splitting birch, hauling water, gutting fish and hanging laundry, and that social occasions called for finer pairs. It lists the types in the collection as trigger mitts, wristers, five-finger mittens, fingerless mitts for small children and classic mittens. It says the double knitting in two colours adds warmth and wind resistance. The page also reports, citing CBC, that one author collected about 30 pairs of traditional mittens from across Newfoundland, with patterns more intricate than today’s common diamond pattern.
The Rooms, the provincial museum in St. John’s, appears in a CBC article about a family trunk of wartime items. The article names trigger mitts among the contents, and a curator at the museum says “you can tell the trigger mitts were made in Newfoundland,” adding that they were probably made by a loved one. The article gives no date for the story.
Dates in order
- Five centuries of fishing and farming (Saltscapes): the span the review gives for the mitts’ background.
- 1989 (Historical Society page): a book on Canadian knitting by the lecturer.
- March 2021 (Saltscapes): the review is published.
- July 2022 (Memorial University): the inventory page on vamps is last updated.
What kind of sources these are
A regional magazine’s book review, a university heritage inventory, a historical society’s lecture notice, a publisher’s sales page and a CBC story. The publisher’s and the society’s pages are promotional. None gives a maker’s workshop or a pattern we could check. We read none of the books.
Questions a buyer would ask
How do I tell hand-knit from machine-made? The sources do not say. Our reading: ask the seller directly what the fibre is and who knitted the pair, and treat an unanswered question as an answer.
Can I knit a pair? The Saltscapes review quotes one author saying an average knitter who can knit in the round with more than one colour can make these designs.
What we left out
Prices, yarn brands, the names of living knitters, and anything about who sells mittens in St. John’s or elsewhere. We also left out the thrummed mitten; the Saltscapes review does not mention it, and we found no source for it.
Quick answers
What is a trigger mitt? According to Saltscapes magazine, it is a partial glove that keeps the hands warm while leaving the fingers free, so the wearer keeps dexterity.
What is a Newfoundland vamp? Memorial University’s heritage inventory describes it as hand-knit footwear halfway between a sock and a slipper.
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