Friday, January 19, 2007

My First Mittens

I was nervous when a friend asked me to make her mittens. I had offered to make a shawl and she had counter-offered with mittens. She had been on the look out for good mittens at the store but had not been able to find any. Could I make her mittens?

I had never made mittens before and I thought that crocheted versus knitted mittens would be a bit too drafty. I consulted the Queen who said that as long as the stitches were small, it should be okay. So I accepted the challenge and said I would make mittens.

We searched the web for mitten patterns but didn't find too many good ones - crocheted ones, that is. She finally decided on this basic mittens pattern.

I will preface the rest of this post with a couple of details:
1 - I'm still new to reading patterns.
2 - I expect patterns to actually be complete and make sense.

Thus, I was tharted with this pattern. I didn't think the pattern was clear at all and the measurements for the women's small were WAAAAY too small - or I have abnormally large hands. I'll admit that maybe - just maybe - it was me and not the pattern...but I doubt it. If anyone has tried this particular pattern, leave a comment or send an email and let me know if it's just me.

Here's the finished product:



Hook Size: G

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease in

  • Blue Mist
  • Dark Rose Heather
Pattern: Basic Mittens

I made quite a few adjustments to the pattern but I didn't write them down for posterity. I knew while working on it that it would be my LAST time using this particular pattern. Just because a pattern is for charity doesn't mean it has to suck. For a list of other crocheted mittens patterns, click here.

I don't have any more mittens on my to-do list right now, but I am hoping to make a pair of fingerless gloves for myself. My office gets really cold, especially where I sit. There's a vortex of cold air in my cube. Really - I'm not making this up. I'm in a cube by an interior wall and I'm no where near a window or a vent. Just a cold, cold vortex. Any good crochet fingerless glove patterns would be appreciated.

2 comments:

The Queen of the Snow Cows said...

The crocheted ribbing is blowing my mind right now. And problems or no I think the mittens came out wonderfully. (Was that english?)

I will agree though, that there are an abundance of craptastically written patterns out there, especially for beginners. Lion brand completely confused my aunt with a crappy crochet pattern that she PAID for. It took a lifetime crocheter awhile to figure out what was going on.

Sam said...

The ribbing was suprisingly easy to make - you just crochet into the back loop instead of under both loops. I'll show you when you come down in May.