A savvy garden gal can never have too many gloves. After all, my hands are my hardest-working gardening tool.
So here's ones to love: Ethel Gloves, an all-purpose line, was launched last year by Valencia-based Mechanix Wear, the company that supplies NASCAR pit crews with high-performance hand protection.
When the Mechanix Wear folks turned their attention to women’s hands, they tried to put function and protection in a feminine form.
“Ethel Gloves have an expressive take on gardening,” President Michael Hale says. “But they also have reinforced fingertips, and an extended cuff to protect wrists from the sun.”
Made with two-way stretch Spandex, the colorful gloves come in prints that include a chartreuse-and-lemon fleur-de-lis pattern or a tonal red hound’s-tooth check. The original Ethel Gloves come in sizes small to large, $20 each. Also available: a gauntlet cuffed glove for rose gardeners and two styles for kids.
Ethel Gloves are available at Southern California Lowe’s, Armstrong Garden Centers, Green Thumb and independent garden centers. The Ethel Gloves’ website has a store locator, or you can call (877) 384-4587. For a 10% discount, use “LATIMES” (all caps, no space) as a promotional code.
-- Debra Prinzing