I ordered boot covers to give to my coach for a Christmas present. She is cold natured and wanted some insulating ones. I found a million light lycra and even some in fleece. I noticed that the ones that actually have insulation quality are rather ...well...ugly! I did find some in neoprene with a layer of titex that were not as ugly but not great either. I am hoping they will be warmer since that is the material used for wet suits in cold water diving. I have a wet suit in neoprene that is super warm.

Has anyone tried these in boot covers or have other opinions of warm boot covers?

I also got her skate pants that are micro fleece stuff. I wanted to get her an exact match to a pair I have as she liked them...but they did not come in super duper tiny! eeek.

One of the coaches at our rink uses neoprene boot covers in winter, and swears by them. He does turn them inside-out as he doesn't care for the logo on the outside, though.

If you are a knitter, I have a pattern for knitted boot covers that I could let you have; maybe you could knit your coach a pair?

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I have to learn how to knit. Just so I can knit cool stuff like this. at you knitting greatness

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I thought it would be great to make a pair (knitted) larger and felt it...but I don't know how much larger they would have to be...I haven't felted anything in a zillion years (and it's been longer than that since I've knitted).

Anyone do mittens (4-needle)? I lost my pattern from prehistoric times....

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

The way to figure that out is to knit a swatch- determine your gauge on it and the exact size of the swatch, and then felt it. Then use that to determine how big to make your boot covers. I've done this successfully for a number of hats and bags, although there are a few that felt differently than the swatch for whatever reason- so you will have a little bit of trial and error in the process. If you felt by hand instead of by machine you have a bit more leway in controlling the size, because you can stop the felting.

I'm not sure about felted boot covers though- seems like they would be really bulky and tough to articulate your feet through. Maybe if you needle felted instead of knitting them first and then felting you could control the thickness.

As for mittens, I don't have a pattern but have seen quite a few floating around the internet. Check the archives at www.knitty.com- might have been there.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
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Thanks! Might have to crank out the needles soon before I forget how to knit...

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

You could get her some ugly insulating ones and a pair of nice lycra ones to put over the top to make it look good? The lycra ones are very thin, it wouldn't be much more bulky than just the thick ones. I don't know if you could attach them somehow though.

Wow! That would be pretty crafty to make them! Very cool that you can custom make them!

Cathrl: I did order the slightly less ugly insulating ones and some lycra ones. She is so cold natured (especially for a person that spends her life on ice!) that I think she will deal with the looks. I also threw in a pair of the lycra ones...not sure if she would were them on top of the others or maybe a "summer look" lol...

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!

Boot covers made out of fake fur look good and are very warm.