> But I would also say that the outcome of the mitten craze has been, overall, positive. Not so much for the woman who made them: Ellis, 42, said she was inun

> But I would also say that the outcome of the mitten craze has been, overall, positive. Not so much for the woman who made them: Ellis, 42, said she was inundated with requests to purchase her mittens after the image of Sanders went viral, but added that the federal government's high tax rates on independent crafters had discouraged her from selling them as a business. "I don't have much of a mitten business anymore because it really wasn't worth it," Ellis said. "Independent crafters get really taken for a ride by the federal government. We get taxed to the nth degree, and it wasn't really worth it pursuing that as a business, even as a side hustle. I mostly just make them as gifts."