Ramble mittens - tutorials

The sun appears to be shining but it's still freezing cold!! Despite the wonderful scene of snowdrops in Batchworth Lake, Spring seems to be still avoiding us.

To keep warm I decided to design these lovely Ramble mittens, well, one reason is to keep warm, the other is that I really wanted to try out the crochet waistcoat stitch and one more reason was a chance to play with the new Willow & Lark yarn.

These cosy mittens are worked from the cuff, which is worked flat then seemed. Stitches for the body of the mittes are worked in raw ends of cuff, which is worked in waistcoat stitch. The colourwork pattern is worked using Fair Isle technique. The stitches are picked up for the thumb at the end.
The mittens are finished off with embellishment worked using double crochet (US sc) around the colourwok pattern, picture tutorial included in the pattern.
The cuff and first 8 rounds of the pattern are written, the rest charted

The pattern for Ramble Mittens is free and available at:

moochka.co.uk

Ravelry

LoveCrochet

 I have create a picture and video tutorial which are below. The picture tutorials are also included in the pattern.

Waistcoat stitch is just fantastic!! It looks like a knit stitch, in fact it's also referred to as the crochet knit stitch.
It is a beautifully tight and firm stitch that’s perfect for mitts, hats, bags and anything that requires dense fabric and it doesn’t twist the work like a standard dc (US sc). I absolutely love it as it looks fantastic and makes a nice change from a standard dc and if that wasn't enough, it is also great for working Fair Isle colourwork.
The only difference from working a standard dc is that you work wst into the body of the stitch, in between the strands (the V) of the stitch below.

Before you start working in waistcoat stitch it is important that you get a pointy hook and remember to keep a relaxed tension, don’t pull your stitches too tight, you will have to work into them on the next round.

1 & 2: Inset the hook in between the strands of the stitch (between the V) as marked by red lines in pic 1.

3: Yoh and pull up a loop, 2 loops on hook.

4: Yoh and pull through 2 loops. One stitch made.

Continue repeating the 4 steps throughout.

Waistcoat stitch video 

                             
                                   In the video MC stands for main colour and CC for contrast colour

How to work crochet Fair isle

Waistcoat stitch is perfect to work crochet colourwork as it doesn’t twist the work therefore the colour changes look better.

1: To get a neat colour change we need to change colours one stitch before: For example; if the fourth stitch needs to be a different colour, change yarns on the third stitch. Work to one stitch before colour change, stop the last stitch when you have two loops on hook.

2: Drop colour A and finish the stitch with colour B.

3: Work next stitch with colour B, but because we need to go back to colour A on the next stitch, finish this stitch with colour A, ready for next stitch.

Continue repeating the 4 steps while following the chart.

Tip – To avoid yarns twisting, make sure you keep your colour B to your right and colour A to your left.

Fair Isle video

Carrying yarn

When working Fair isle you need to carry the yarn not in use with you all the way around, but only carry the yarn on the rounds that it’s required. The neatest way to do this is to catch the yarn every other stitch when not in use.

1: When inserting hook to work wst make sure that the yarn to be stranded is placed on top of the hook at the back of work.

2: Work wst as normal, enclosing the strand in the stitch. Continue repeating the 2 steps, enclosing the yarn not in use every other stitch.

Happy crocheting,

Anna x