MAMIS MITTENS - CROCHET TUTORIAL

My friend Stefanie asked for directions to make my mittens. Which I promised to write down in exchange for spekulatius. For those of you who have never had spekulatius, I am sorry, YOU HAVE NOT LIVED until you try those christmas cookies from Germany. I LOVE them and there is no way getting them in Southern California.

Unfortunately, I had crochet these mittens a while ago  without a pattern and used simply my own little two hands as measurement.

So, with this tremendously strong lure of spekulatius, I went to work and counted loops and rows of my mittens. . .  I hope this pattern is correct. In case you try re-creating these and you run into problems, let me know. I am pretty confident, we can figure it out ;-).

My mittens were made from pretty thick yarn; I would guess with a 8mm hook and the mittens measure  about 15 inches from top to bottom or 38cm. The circumference at the opening is 29cm or 11.5 inches.

These mittens are looong and when I wear them, they almost reach up to my elbow. If you don't want yours that long, take this in consideration when crocheting.

In case you need some help with the stitches, check out lion brands crochet tutorial videos.

http://learntocrochet.lionbrand.com/

These mittens are double-crocheted. If you chose to single-crochet them, the conversion from double to single crochet is about 1:1.5.

Without further speculation, here is how I crochet my mittens:

Cast on 34 loops and close to circle. Check whether this fits around your arm at the place where you want the mitten to reach up to. Adjust if necessary.

Cast 3. Double-crochet one per each loop. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Start reducing loops: Cast 3, double-crochet 30. To reduce, skip two loops that are opposite each other.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 28. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 26. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 24. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 22. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 22. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 22.  Close to circle with chain stitch.  These is the tight spot. It should fit your wrist. Try it on and adjust if necessary.

Cast 3. Double-crochet 24. Close to circle with chain stitch.  Add the two loops at the same place where you reduce before.

Try the 'mitten' on. This should cover and fit your wrist up to the point where your thumb starts.

This is tricky now, because we have to part with the thumb and finish the main hand part of the mitten first. So, from here on, crochet in rows.

Double-crochet 22, turn.

Cast 3, double-crochet 22, turn.

Try it on again. You should have passed by your thumb and can continue to crochet in circles again. If not, add another row.

 Chain one. Double-crochet 21.

 Double-crochet 22. Close to circle with chain stitch.

 Double-crochet 22. Close to circle with chain stitch.

 Double-crochet 20. Close to circle with chain stitch.

 Double-crochet 18. Close to circle with chain stitch.

Skip every other and double-crochet 9, chain one.

Cast these 10 all off together.

Now about the thumb:

At the point where we left off, single-crochet around the whole with 14, chain one.

Cast 3, double-crochet 12, chain one; yes, we start reducing again.

Cast 3, double-crochet 9, chain one.

Cast 3, double-crochet and skip every other loop, chain at end.

Cast all off together.

Make mitten #2 and embellish as you like.

I cut hearts and flowers out of felt and stitched them on and single-crochet a border on the opening.


"Nature never says one thing and wisdom another." Decimus Junius Juvenalis