Thrumming: it's the new gardening

I've come to accept that whatever Karen Irving does, I will do too. If Karen jumped off a cliff I would doubtless do the same, wondering whether we couldn't just climb down but certain that there was some really fabulous rock at the bottom she wanted to show me in a hurry, because I know Karen likes rocks as much as I do, though I don't typically enjoy falling onto them, so that's where this analogy breaks down. Suffice it to say that if you read Karen's blog and noticed her mitten-thrumming adventures, you'll know what's coming next.

Thrumming is, as I understand it, the process of feeding roving (hunks of wool that has not yet been spun into yarn, though it will likely be clean and possibly dyed) into knit stitches. Result: a warm impenetrable fabric, soft with woolly tufts on the inside.

I was, in addition to understanding that, under the impression that thrumming is not gardening. But it seems those tufts have to get into your knitting somehow, and since the roving for my mitt kit came in a solid braid, it means tearing it out 3-4" at a time. You know, by hand. And roving is seriously grainy stuff. You can separate it along its width like nobody's business, but try tearing along the length and it grows superheroically strong enough to send you right back into the garden, in July, weeding out the most stubborn malingerers. Still. Thrummed mitts! gotta get back to it!