Disclosure: This is not a compensated or sponsored post. I was provided the product for review purposes only. All opinions expressed here are my own.

When Marilyn Robertson first started her business making mittens out of recycled sweaters, she regularly haunted local thrift shops, searching for old pullovers and cardigans. She’d buy anything. At the heart of Robertson’s company, Jack & Mary Designs (named for her parents), which makes headbands, hats, Christmas stockings, and other accessories from old wool sweaters. The pieces are sold in about 275 stores nationwide.

Jack and Mary started out as a handbag business. Then, in 2009, a friend asked Robertson to make handbags as gifts for her sisters out of their late mother’s sweaters. Robertson used the leftover sleeves to make mittens, and that part of the business exploded. Today, she also makes other accessories, such as hats, headbands, and scarves, as well as boot cuffs and “bun warmer skirts,” short skirts that are worn over leggings. She’s got a full-time employee who helps with sales, and nearly a dozen part-timers who help her cut fabric and who sew the mittens out of their homes.

The sweaters are washed and dried after they arrive at the Jack and Mary studio. Then Robertson, a former interior designer, sorts through them.  This story had an amazing impact on me. The fact that you could take these sweaters and make treasured pieces.

The company’s most popular products, however, are the custom-made Memory Mittens — the customer provides a favorite, well-worn sweater, and Robertson and her team of sewers give it a new life as fleece-lined mittens. This story touched me because I could take a sweater from my dad, mom or younger sister and make mittens so that I always carry them with me.

Making the Memory Mittens can be an intimate experience. They are a way to honor the relationship that you had with someone. A keepsake so that you will never forget the ones who made an impact on your life.

Mittens from Jack and Mary Designs cost $50 a pair for women’s, $50 for men’s and $40 for kids. They are available through jackandmarydesigns.com or in 275 stores nationwide. Locally, find them at Daisy Janes in York; Farm + Table in Kennebunkport, Maine Sport Outfitters in Rockport, Island Artisans in Bar Harbor and the Nubble Light gift shop in Sohier Park in York.

If you have one of these products let me know what you think about them.