Crocheted fingerless mittens

September 12th 

Hot coffee and crocheted mittens a good combo

Before sitting down to write a blog post I make myself a coffee.  Today was no different, except that I made the coffee a tad strong and therefore needed extra milk.  Not leaving enough space to add the extra milk did however not stop me.  Some uncontrollable urge to fill the cup to the brim until the liquid within produced a perfect, held within the cup, did not flow over, dome shape.  Question was now, how to move said cup without spilling?  I couldn't!  So I lent over and slurped the coffee which of course was still far too hot for me to drink, I do not have an asbestos mouth as some people appear to have and consequently burnt my lip and tongue.  I feel and look a fool, does anyone else have uncontrollable silly urges that you just can't stop even though you know the idea is pants?!  No?!?!?  Just me then.  (At least I still didn't spill any!)

Yesterday I saw a post on one of the Internet crochet sites I belong to of some fabulous fingerless mittens.  I have secretly been harbouring an urge to knit a pair after my daughter received a lovely neon knitted set.  But my knitting skills are not up to much, so I have been thinking perhaps I should start with something more simple.  But salvation came with this pattern in regards to the mittens.  Again using just stash busting yarn, I set to.  The pattern called for chunky yarn, of which I had none, so I doubled up and used two strands.  What do you think?

The pattern is designed by a young Australian called Olivia and her blog is delightful, she has such a fresh and open view of the world.  I am her latest subscriber to her blog.  If you have not found her yet, I urge you to have a peek here

So to make her mittens, a quick photo journal of my creations, but pop over and see her pattern, link below the photographs.

Chain 32 and for the second row single stitch from the second
loop from the hook till the end of the row.

Row three same as row two.  Row four is where the button hole is
created. With four stitches left at the end of the row, chain two, miss two
stitches and single crochet the last two stitches.  See photo above.

Row five single crochet the whole row, remembering to
crochet into the two chains also.

Row 6 & 7 single crochet each row. 
Row 8, creating a second button hole, repeat row 4.





Row 9,10,11,12, single crochet, fasten off. 
Then make a second wrist cuff.

Sew buttons onto the wrist cuffs.

When ready to create the body of the mitten fold over the wrist and
crochet both layers together.  I overlapped my cuffs with four
stitches.  Continue round the whole cuff with single crochet.

Row 1 of the main body should end up looking
as in the above photograph.

The main body is made up of puff stitches, you need to yarn
over, insert in stitch, yarn over, pull through the stitch only, you should now
have 3 loops on the hook and repeat this again in the same stitch, making
sure you end up with 5 loops on the hook and finally repeat again making
 a total of seven loops on the hook.  then yarn over and pull through ALL
seven stitches.  this is a puff stitch.  there are good you tube tutorials if you need help. 



After each puff stitch, chain two, miss a stitch and then puff
stitch in the next stitch.   Continue all the way round.
 Repeat for row 2 also.  Row 3, I then reduced the number of chains
between each puff stitch to one, Olivia does not do this I her pattern,
 but I felt it made it a more snug fit.

Row 4, continue with puff stitch till the half way mark where you would like your
thumb to be, put it on to check you have the correct location.  After the puff stitch
before you would like your thumb hole, chain four, then double crochet into the
next space and puff stitch in the same space.  This creates the thumb hole.  See above.

Row 5 & 6, puff stitch all the way round with
one chain space between each. 

Row 7 & 8 double crochet around the mitten to finish off.
 Once finished fasten off and weave in all loose threads. 
Repeat for second mitten.

 Yesterday I made all three pairs of mittens, they are fun and quick and really addictive to make.  I shall be making plenty more.  Are you tempted?  Let me know how you get on and thank you Olivia for such a great pattern.

 For Olivia's pattern see here

♥Thank crunchy it is Friday, have a great week end!♥