Fingerless mittens

I have made a couple of “proper” pairs of fingerless mitts. By “proper” I mean ones with a thumb, rather than just a hole. They are very warm, but a little chunky, as they knit with the “knit one below” stitch. So I decided to crochet some. I had some sock wool which I wanted to use. I have tried knitting with dpns but simply can’t get one with them, so the sock wool was going spare!

I looked for a few patterns and ended up adapting a couple for what I wanted. Basically with these I make10 ch, then crochet in double crochet (single for US crochet people – I use UK abbreviations) until the work went round my wrist. Slip stitch together, turn inside out and the cuff is done,

Pick up a multiple of 6 stitches +1 from round the edge of the cuff rows, to make the mitten. Then do one round of dc.

The pattern is quite simple:- *dc, 2 chain, miss 2 in previous round, make a tc shell into the next st (5 tc into same place), 2 ch, miss 2 in previous round, repeat from * For the second and subsequent rows, make the shell in the centre of the previous shell.

Work the pattern until the base of the thumb is covered. On the next round, decide where you want a gap for the thumb and, instead of a shell make sufficient chain to fit comfortably across the inside of the thumb. For my large hands that was about 10 chain in total. Continue with the pattern. On the next round patt as before and make a shell in the centre chain of the chain you made on the previous round.

Continue in pattern until the mitt covers the knuckles. Then a round of dc: dc into each of chain from previous round, dc into middle of shell etc. Final round, dc round then finish off.

Or at least it was something like that – I did make it up as I went along, a bit!