Montville ― Ever donated a sweater to a thrift store?

Well there’s a chance that sweater might now be having a second life, as a pair of mittens, courtesy of Boxford, Mass.-based craftswoman Anita Jordan.

“I make 1,000 pairs of mittens a year,” Jordan said. “All from sweaters.”

Jordan, running a booth Sunday at the 38th Annual New England Christmas Festival, hung hundreds of pairs of her handmade mittens on display for customers to purchase. They were $20 each.

She was one of hundreds of artisans at the festival, which was held at Mohegan Sun’s Earth Expo & Convention Center. Sunday was the third day of the festival.

Jordan, who runs her own business called Twice as Nice, said she starts in January making the mittens, and hits 1,000 by October.

“If it’s a sweater I like - or even if I don’t like - it becomes a mitten,” she said.

Then Jordan starts selling them, at festivals like this one.

“This fair is the best fair,” said Jordan. “It was insane yesterday. This is like the event of New England.”

To take the mittens, she takes the sweaters from a thrift store, washes them, cuts them into shapes and sews them together.

“I’ve done this for a long time, so I can take a sweater and turn it into three pairs of mittens in less than an hour,” she said. “I never take the good sweaters that people wear.”

As Mary Griskewicz, of Madison, was perusing Jordan’s booth, she picked up a pair of wool mittens, and Jordan commented that was the best pair she had in the shop, because the quality was very good.

“I’m surprised it took so long to sell them,” she said.

Griskewicz, purchasing the mittens for a friend, said she was happy to have supported an artisan who was “upcycling,” or turning unwanted items into something of a higher value.

“I bought a pair for myself, too,” she said.

Nearby, the search for handmade, unique gifts had brought friends Heather Baker, of Grafton, Mass., and Debbie Desruisseaux and Kaitlyn Waters, of Uxbridge, Mass., to drive an hour to the festival.

“Everybody’s here for a different reason,” Desruisseaux said. “For us, like it’s just to find something different and unique that’s not, like, store-bought. You know? And I love seeing all the different artisans that are here.”

“It’s more personalized,” Baker, dressed festively with a mistletoe dangling over her head, agreed.

“And I love seeing all the stuff made by smaller people and smaller companies,” Desruisseaux added. “And just supporting that, you know? Like a lot of these things start as hobbies. But those are the things that I buy into.”

The three said they’d found purchased some decorations, soaps, jewelry and cookies at the festival, which Baker considered to be the start of the holiday season.

“The kickoff to Christmas,” she called it.

The three agreed Christmas is one of their favorite holidays.

“Something fun and festive to do when it’s all depressing and dark out,” Baker said.

More artisans exhibit hard work through their creations

In another booth Sunday, mother Janet Cameron, of North Kingstown, R.I., and daughter Jennifer Chappell, of Lunenberg, Mass., offered creations from their crafts businesses, Stained Glass Creations and Elements of Fusion.

“We’ve been doing (Christmas) shows for more than 20 years. So we have a lot of repeat customers that come,” Chappell said.

“Or we’ve had a lot of people that this is their first time ever coming to this show I make new ornaments every year,” she added. “So I have people that are coming and looking for what’s new this year.”

Both Cameron and Chappell work with glass, and so their shared booth was filled with ornate stained or fused-glass ornaments and other decorations of their creation. Beautiful stained glass Christmas trees were there to catch the eyes of customers.

“People are here really looking for handcrafted things,” Chappell said.

Asked what attracts people to Christmas ornaments every year, Chappell said it’s tradition.

“A lot of people are either buying them because they either get or give or pick out a new ornament every year,” she said.

Craftsman Gil Falcone, of Falcone Creations, was pretty much sold out of artificial wreaths and Christmas trees, and only had a few decorative sleighs left, which were set out on a table. Each sleigh, which had been hand made, featured incredible detail, and were packed with individually wrapped presents, a Santa Claus figurine and faux pine sprigs.

Falcone said he started making Christmas decorations when he was 15 years old, starting with real wreaths and baskets for cemeteries. Now, he has progressed to artificial products.

“It’s more of a hobby, it’s not a big money-maker,” he said.

“It’s just a pleasure to be able to show my work and look at the great, bright faces that buy it,” he said of the festival. “Happy Christmas faces.”

d.drainville@theday.com