"Say Cheese!" Perfectly Cheesy Mitten Knitting Pattern

Say Cheese!

“Say Cheese!” mittens are inspired by you guessed it, cheese. I love cheese. Cheddar, gouda, marble, parmesan, feta, brie, old, soft, hard, blue, cow, goat, sheep – all of it. But I didn’t always love it though. Growing up in the 70’s I was raised on Kraft singles, glossy, floppy, salty and conveniently individually wrapped in plastic. Slap a couple of those bad boys between two slices of equally floppy wonder-bread, slather the outsides with margarine and fry it up in a Teflon pan and there was our grilled “cheeze” sandwich, ready to be washed down with a sugary cola. Or how about some of that gooey Cheez Whiz in a jar that we would plop on our boiled wiener hot dogs along with way too much ketchup. Ah, the good ole days.

The Cheezz of my childhood

Its not like we didn’t know real cheese existed; it just wasn’t part of our world. Real cheese was this mysterious collection behind glass at a special section of the grocery store where you had to grab a number and wait to be summoned. “Too expensive” my parents would murmur as they pushed the cart right on past that beautiful cheesy counter.

Real cheese still held a fascination for me if even in my subconscious. Saturday morning cartoons, the never missed ritual was full of death-defying stunts performed by adorable mice to obtain the glorious holey orange cheese. Tom and Jerry, Speedy Gonzales, Hubie and Bertie (yeah, yeah, sure, sure), Mighty Mouse and the Honey-mousers to name my faves. For it to be such an accepted stereotype, like dogs hating cats, and cats hunting mice, there must be something awesome about real cheese for mice to risk death and dismemberment.

My Saturday morning mice

It wasn’t until my university years that I got my introduction to real cheese. I was working as a server for a catered ‘wine & cheese’ charity function where my mind was blown. The mysteries of the deli glass cabinets were spread across the kitchen counter with the caterers slicing and arranging a cornucopia of cheeses, along with fruits and meats I’d also never heard of. These shar-choot-airy boards were a beautiful thing. Best of all being a starving student, we got to help ourselves to the leftovers after the function. Best day ever. I don’t remember all the cheeses I got to try but I remember they were amazing… especially the stinky ones.

Cheese mitten charcuterie

When thinking up new fun and quirky designs, a cheesy mitten knitting pattern was definitely on my list. Doing a little internet searching to make sure I don’t accidently copy anyone and other than oven mitts I could not find anyone else who had made cheesy mittens. Huh, its not often I think of something that nobody has thought of before. It means its either a really great idea or a really terrible one – I’ll let you decide. “Say Cheese” mittens are a homage, or should I say a fromage to all those lovely cheeses out there and to the cute little cartoon mice that will risk life and limb to eat them.