The story started when Santa Fe entrepreneurs Connie Kaiserman and Jennifer Isaacson decided to commercialize the Twitten and not spend too much money doing so.

The idea was to introduce a new, fun, handmade, socially responsible product to the market -- the Twitten, a two-handed mitten two people can wear as they hold hands to stay warm.

"The idea was to develop a fair-trade small business by introducing one thing [the Twitten and matching mittens] the first year and developing other handmade accessories around it in subsequent years," Kaiserman said.

So far, things have worked out well.

"We have doubled our number of stores and orders from this time last year," Kaiserman said in a news release. "It's especially popular in college towns and hip urban and suburban boutiques."

With perhaps the exception of a New York gift show, Twitten has found popularity just about everywhere.

"The first year, they [show officials] had us in the corner, and there was not much exposure," Kaiserman said. The second year was better.

Why is Twitten a hit?

"It's partly because Twitten is a novelty," Kaiserman said, "and partly because people like the name and also because the people who have been selling it are very enthusiastic."

In Santa Fe, "we sold Twittens at the Santa Fe Farmers Market and by word of mouth. We shipped them out of our office on Read Street."

Kaiserman shares the office with her husband, Steve Robinson, an architect.

The idea for the Twitten started more than 40 years ago in Pennsylvania, when Kaiserman got tired of getting cold fingers when sitting with Robinson at University of Pennsylvania football games. She wanted to be able to hold his hand without their fingers freezing.

Years later, when Kaiserman and Isaacson, a longtime friend, finally got serious about commercializing the Twitten, they worked pretty much on their own.

When asked if they'd found any business-assistance groups in Santa Fe that helped them get started, Kaiserman said no.

The two entrepreneurs realized they could use their own resources.

"Jen and I did seek general planning and marketing advice from a few places around town. But we didn't find we could use anything that seemed applicable to our needs without spending a lot of money," Kaiserman said.

They didn't give up.

"Jen had a background in resourcing handmade products internationally and in retail," Kaiserman said. "And I had a background in independent filmmaking -- which means I was familiar with business and PR."

All of those skills came in handy as they developed the Twitten.

For start-up funding, "we used money that was liquidated from another investment," Kaiserman said. "Next year, we plan to add a few more items to complete our line," Kaiserman said.

Kaiserman's conclusion is that the Twitten for her "represents a college student's dream come true, and while Twitten is just plain silly and fun, our line is as practical as it is beautiful."

A long list of celebrities have fallen for the Twitten, including Audrina Partridge and Ryan Cabrera, Chelsea Handler and Chuy, and Another Earth's William Mapother.

The Twitten may be based in Santa Fe, but the product is made by a group of young women working with Issacson in an artisan-development program in Peru.

"Because these women never learned about traditional weaving, we have developed a program that teaches locals to know handmade products specifically for the U.S. market," Kaiserman said.

There's also an additional goal of "keeping the women's cultural traditions alive," Twitten's website indicated. A fifth of Twitten's profits go to the Bodhi Fund, which was started to cover living expenses of families whose children need out-of-state medical help.

For more information, visit the Twitten website, www.thetwitten.com.