What is it with retailers selling one oven mitt at a time? Except for the Amish woman at the market from whom I bought  my last set of oven mitts, they seem to be priced per mitt everywhere I go. Who came up with that idea? Wait, I don’t want to know. I might give the person a small piece of advice.

or

I went to the fabric store looking for the right  kind of cloth to make oven mitts. I had a gift idea in mind and thought I’d make a pair for a certain person.  Even in the fabric store, decorator oven mitts were priced the same as most other retailers these days—one mitt at a time.

Should I just buy two and be done with it? I decided that I’d continue with my plan. I chose fabric that I liked, asked for the right sort of inter lining so the cook would not burn her hands, then took everything to the cutting table.  Wendy, the manager, waited on me as she is often helping in the store.

As she cut my fabric, I asked, “When did the retailing trend start,  selling one oven mitt at a time?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

When I said it didn’t make sense, she agreed.  Perhaps she hadn’t thought a lot about it, yet as store manager, she’s certainly had a hand at buying merchandise for the store.

” A one-handed cook or baker?” I said.

“People need two hands to pull a hot dish from the oven,”  she said as she smoothed my fabric for cutting. She added that people need them for the microwave as well.

I paid for my fabric and thread and went home with plans to complete my sewing project the next day.
That evening, as I replayed my conversation with Wendy, I thought, What’s next? Selling one boot or shoe at a time? Half a pair of socks? At least we can still get a pair of warm winter mittens when we need them.

Shh! Better not say this too loud.

Here’s the girl who gets two oven mitts