LET'S TALK HAND THINGS-CROCHET

 Good morning yarnies,

This week I'm going to spotlight some of my favorite and not-so-favorite things to keep one's hands warm.  These include mittens, gloves, fingerless mittens and flip-mitts both knitted and crocheted.  Personally, I have knitted and crocheted all of these and done so with various weight and fiber yarns. 

I'll start with crocheted gloves or anything with individual openings for pointer, middle, ring and pinky fingers.  These are a challenge for me.  Although I haven't done crocheted gloves in a while I remember that you have to be super careful that your stitch count is correct before getting into the fingers part.  The other thing I remember is that the two times I did fingered flip-mitts...I had not discovered the wonder that is stitch markers.  For crochet, whether hooking in the round or having to do a slip-stitch join + chain(s) for the next round, stitch markers, at least for me, have avoided gaining or losing stitches in the round.  They also make positioning the fingers easier. Other than that, I need to go back and crochet a pair of gloves to give you better tips in the future.

So that brings us to hand-warming devices that have a thumb and one large opening for the other four fingers.  Every pair of mitts/mittens I have crocheted are one continuous piece from the cuff.  The cuff is usually single crochet through the back loop. Here's a great video for that.

Marly Bird's single crochet through the back loop 

The cuff is slip stitched together with the right sides facing. Turn the cuff right side out and pick up the required number of stitches around the edgel  I've developed my own system for this and it's hard to describe but know that most patterns call for picking up one stitch for each row of rib..so one for the "up" rib and one from the "down" rib.  Below is a link to Marly's video for the Snowday Mittens and the first few minutes shows this. Now she is doing slip stitches but most patterns I have done call for single crochets

Switch from cuff to palm

If you are doing fingerless mitts most likely your will just end with a crocheted row.  However, it may include a ribbing that I find fun once I did it. It starts with a chain followed by single crochet back down to the mitt, attaching to the body, turning then single crochets in the back loops back up.  If this is an actual mitten you will decrease per the instructions usually until there are 4 stitches left.  You cut the yarn leaving a long tail and put that on a darning needle. Run the yarn through each of the 4 stitches and pull it to draw the opening closed then turn the mitten inside out to weave in that end. 

 In crochet, again, it is ensuring that you have the correct number of stitches for your thumb hole. Adding the thumb or opening for fingerless mitts doesn't leave openings like knitting does.  However, hooking in a small circle is not fun and the smaller the circle the less fun (side note-this is why I don't do amigurumi). I will refer you back to Marly Bird and the Snowday mittens for completing a thumb.

Sometime in the future, I will post my notes on Sue's Free Crochet Mitten pattern which features the moss stitch. I have made two pairs of these.  

and her crocheted flip mitts which I have also made two pairs.