Last week, Dawn from Wild Yarn mentioned that she liked the mitts, but she didn’t knit herself. She’s a crocheter.
For many, many years, I was too. Well, I still am but I’ve learned a few additional tricks as well :) And I was thinking over the weekend that it would be nice to put up a crochet mitt pattern to go with the knit mitts. I’m in full agreement with Bron over at Bron’s Blog II - cables belong in knitted items. To me, crocheted cables always look fake and “wannabe” so I don’t do them. Besides, I wanted this to be crochet crochet, not fake-knitting crochet, if you see what I mean? So, without further ado…
The “Somebody Stole the Fingers off my Gloves” glove…
Crochet style!
This couldn’t be simpler. Basically, using worsted weight yarn and a size G hook, make a chain that’s just a little longer than you want the length of your mitt to be. Then hdc back and forth until the piece is wide enough to go around your hand and forearm and sew up the side seam.
Note: I did consider making this in the round to eliminate the seam, but I liked the look of the chains going up the length of the mitt. So that’s the way I made it. Experimenting with doing it in rounds though, might be interesting… Hmmm….
This is a technique I played with a long time ago. I haven’t seen it anywhere else, but I certainly don’t think I’m the only one to have figured it out. It isn’t difficult at all. What it does is give the finished material a very gentle elasticity and it creates the long, vertical lines of chains.
Because I don’t trust my ability to explain this clearly, I enlisted the aid of Myria’s excellent camera and photographic skills to help me out.
Top edge of the crocheted piece
O-kay. Just to get the idea, grab some worsted weight yarn and a “G” hook and chain 12. Hdc in 4th chain from hook and in each chain across - 10 sts. Chain 3 and turn.
Turn your work so you’re looking down at the top edge of it. See that line of chains? We’re going to displace it so that it runs up the length of our work. Since these chains are normally the stitches into which we would work the next row, we’re going to have to do something different.
Back view of stitches
The circle in the picture above highlights the hdc as it appears after you’ve turned you work. The horizontal thread at the top is one side of our chain stitch. See those two diagonal threads just below? That’s where we’re aiming - we’re going to crochet into the top diagonal thread.
Making the first stitch
That’s exactly all there is to it. Instead of crocheting into the front or back (or both) loops of the top of the stitch, you’re crocheting into the diagonal thread just beneath it. Keep your tension relaxed and just continue to do that on both sides of the work until the piece is the size you want. Simple, eh?
Back and front alike…
This makes a reversible fabric. The chains are offset one row from one another on the front and reverse sides, but if you’re careful with sewing up and weaving in yarn ends, you can make reversible mitts :)
So for the mitt as I made it:
Materials
Worsted weight yarn (I used Red Heart Super Saver in “Art Print”)
“G” crochet hook
Tapestry needle for sewing seam
Methods
Chain 38.
Hdc in 3rd chain from hook and in each chain across - 36 sts. Chain 2, turn.
Hdc in the diagonal thread just below the 2nd stitch (in other words, the “chain 3” counts as the first hdc) and continue this way across the work; 1 hdc in turning chain - 36 sts.
Repeat row 2 until work is as wide as you’d like.
Sew seam up to where you want your thumb hole to be. Run your thread under a few stitches (for length of thumbhole) and finish stitching on the other side. And enjoy!
No trackbacks yet.
you are really on a productive streak!! thanks for sharing your ideas and patterns with everyone- i learned to crochet after i learned to knit, but do it a lot faster, and i think i might be able to turn out a few pairs of the crocheted mitts in time for holiday giving- i do have some figures for the scaled down version of the knitted ones (should fit a child or a ladies xs/s) that i will get around to sending you-
i’ll jump in and agree with the thought that crocheted cables never look quite like the ‘real thing’ to me either- knitted cables have a flow to them that just isn’t there with the crocheted ones-
i am toying with wishes for having a time period in between the weekend and monday- i woke up today with that ‘morning after’ feeling which reallly isn’t fair as i didn’t even have a weekend of riotous living to look back on- one of those ‘please alka-seltzer, don’t fizz so loudly’ days is not what i had in mind for today- whines and moans from here in texas-
stay happy-
I find it amazing when great minds think alike! I am on a mission to find a fingerless glove/mitten pattern I like and I see you have been on a similar mission…or rather, just went and created your own! You rock Robbyn! Wow, good stuff.
Thank you for your kind comment on my blog…I’m having a choked up day to say the least.
L
Barb - A recovery period for the weekend seems like a teriffic idea! But who are you going to propose it to?
If you didn’t have a riotous weekend and the Alka Seltzer is still fizzing too loudly, do you think you might be coming down with something? (Crossing fingers that this is not the case…)
Lisa - Thanks - I’m sure you’ll come up with something just as nice, if not a good deal niftier :)
Very cool! I gotta try it. :) After I finish (!) your gauntlet mittens that is. 
Heh - Thanks Bron :)
Robbyn! You are so awesome! Thanks for working up a pattern in crochet. They look great and I will definately try it out. I’m waiting for some alpaca that I ordered to get here and then I’m on it. Thanks again!
~DAWN
Dawn - My pleasure :) They were fun to do!
