Left Hand Unisex Arm Warmer Free Crochet Pattern Workshop ~ Fingerless Mitts Crochet Pattern

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com. Today we're going to make these super easy wrist warmers just using worsted weight yarn, a 6mm USJ hook, and pretty much one kind of stitch. You're going to work these up really fast. I'm also going to show you how to get them to be the exact same size. A really easy trick to do that. So grab your yarn and let's get started. Okay, so before I begin actually crocheting, I wanted to make sure that before you begin, if you're only working with one ball of yarn, that you make it a center-pull ball. And I'm going to explain why in a little bit, but before you begin, if you have one skein or whatever you have, find both ends so that you can work with both ends off of the same ball. If you don't know, I don't know if you don't have like a center pull skein. That you can work from both sides right now. You can go ahead and wind it into a center pull ball and I have a video tutorial on that. But it's going to help you create more, if you have any problems keeping gauge when you're working on pairs of items, so wrist warmers or gloves, whatever it may be, this trick is going to help you keep your gauge consistent. Get a center pull ball if you do not already so that we can start the project. Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is put a slip knot on our hook. So we're going to turn and just grab that working yarn and pull it through. So my instructions tell me to chain 34. So if you know how to foundation double crochet, you can go ahead and do 32 of those because this project is perfect for the foundation double crochet, and what that is is a technique where your foundation chain and your double crochet, your first row of double crochet is combined into one. So I have tutorials on that, you can go check it out if you want to try that. Otherwise you can go ahead and just start chaining to 34. Yarn over from back to front, turn your hook down and pull through that chain, and we're going to do that 34 times. Yarn over, pull through. Now the reason that you might do a foundation double crochet instead of chaining and then doing a row of double crochet is that you find that your first row double crochet is always really tight. A foundation double crochet creates a really stretchy foundation for any project you're working, so it can be really beneficial if that very first row of your double crochet Shade is usually really tight. So I'm going to work up to 34, and then we're going to start our row 1 instructions for the arm warmer. Alright, I've got 34 chains, and now we're going to start the actual first row. And it's telling me that I'm going to double crochet in every chain that I come to, pretty much. So what we're going to do is we're going to yarn over, and it says beginning in the 4th chain from my hook. So we don't count that loop that's on our hook. That's our working loop. We're going to count the V's. Remember, each little V is one stitch or one chain. So I'm going to count 1, 2, and 3. Those are the 3 chains that I'm going to skip. And those are actually going to count as my very first double crochet. Then I'm going to go into that fourth chain and I'm just going to catch this back loop and I'm going to do back loops all the way across my foundation chain because we're making a ribbed double crochet so these back loops are what we're going to be using throughout the whole pattern. So I'm going to yarn over, which is more of like a layover on this first part of our double crochet. We just kind of lay it right over the top of your hook so you can catch it and pull up that loop. Now I have three loops on my hook. I'm going to work off two at a time So I'm going to yarn over back to front as normal, pull through that first two, and then I'm going to push my loops back to my shaft. This gives me nice even loops and even stitches. Then I'm going to yarn over again and I'm going to pull through the last two. So now I have one actual double crochet and a chain three that I'm counting as a double crochet. Because they end up getting kind of bulky looking like the double crochet, we want to count our chain threes throughout the entire pattern. Again, I'm going to yarn over from back to front. Now I'm looking for my next V, which is right here. I'm going to grab that back loop again, push through, lay over the yarn, pull up the loop, You'll see that I kind of pull everything down because I want my stitches riding on top of my work. I don't want to start doing my yarn overs with my hook in front of my work. That's going to give me short squat stitches. So make sure you pull your loops up to the top of your work before you start working your loops off. So yarn over from back to front, pull through two, Push to my shaft. Yarn over, pull through the last two, and push to my shaft. So when I'm doing this normal speed, you'll see that I always push to my shaft. That's why I like these hooks, because they have that kind of bumper stopper. So I can just keep pushing until I hit that bumper, and then do my next move. So again, I look for my next chain. Make sure you don't go in the same chain that you already worked into. You can see this one is attached to this chain, so I go into my next chain. Lay over that yarn, pull up, yarn over, pull through the first two, shaft, second two, shaft. So just remember, always push to your shaft, and that's going to give you nice, even stitches. So I'm going to keep doing double crochets in every chain that I come to, all the way across my foundation chain. And at the end, I'm going to have 32 double crochets. Technically it's 31 and a chain 3, but because we count that chain 3, my stitch count is going to read 32 stitches on the pattern. Okay, I'm on my very last chain, and I'm doing my double crochet, and then instead of starting round 2, I am going to stop and give you some trivia. Did you know that when you crochet, depending on the day and how your day is going, your Your gauge is going to change. So, what does that mean? That means if you make this entire arm warmer tonight, and then you make your next arm warmer tomorrow night, but you've had a fight with your significant other, your arm warmer's probably going to be smaller, your new one's going to be smaller than this one, because you are going to be a little tense and tend to crochet a little tighter. So I'm going to show you why you made a center pull ball. I'm going to stop with this one and I'm going to start on my second arm warmer right now with the other end of that ball. So I'm going to alternate every single row that I do between the two arm warmers. When I do that, so if I have that fight tomorrow, I will crochet both of these a little bit tighter than normal, which will give me a more consistent outcome on the two arm warmers. So if you've ever made a pair of anything and one is always a different size than the other and you're having the hardest time trying to get them to match, work them at the same time. So I'm going to do my 34 chains on my second arm warmer right now, and I'm going to do I'm going to do row one. And then we're going to line these up and check out how the gauge matches up. Okay, so I finished row one of both of the arm warmers and as you can see they are nearly perfect. I always say nearly because you never, nothing's really ever super perfect, but they look completely even to me which is much better than I normally make my two paired crocheted items. If I make them one at a time it is guaranteed that one will be smaller than the other. Go ahead and start on row two. So either or arm warmer, I'm just grabbing whatever one was in front of me, and I'm going to start my row two instructions. So what I want to do is chain three, but I'm going to do something special just for this video, and I'm going to do my tall chain, which is a way to get rid of gaps on your double crochet projects. So, if I do a chain 3, Let me show you the difference. I do a chain three and then I work the first stitch which tells me to double crochet in the back loop only. Because I'm counting this chain three as a stitch, I wouldn't work into that very first loop. I would go over to the second one and do my first double crochet and I'll go a little slower with that back loop when I show you the difference. So, now I have this big gap here in between my chain 3 and my first double crochet. And every other row is going to have that gap at the beginning of my row. So to eliminate this gap and make it non-existent, I'm going to do what's called a tall chain. So I'm going to pull a chain as tall as I make my double crochets, and then I'm going to yarn over and pull through. That's going to lock that in place. Now, I'm not counting this as a stitch, this was just a starter to get my stitch up to that chain, or that double crochet height. So now I'm going to double crochet, but I'm going to do it in that very first stitch, because I'm not counting this as a stitch. So we're working in the back loop only because we're making a ribbed fabric, so when you're looking at the top of your hook, or the top of your stitches, you see your V's. The V's are there. To show you your loops, you have your front loop, which is closer to you, and your back loop, which is further away from you. That's why it's called the back loop, because it's in the back. So I'm going to insert my hook through there, and then yarn over like normal, or the layover as I call it, and pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through the first two. Yarn over, pull through the second two. Now that big gap that I had is gone because I have a stitch there instead. So that is a very handy tip for working your stitches. It's anything where you have a chain three for a double crochet, you can substitute that tall chain so you don't have that gap. So it's just for you viewers at At home, special, special. tip for you. So again I'm going to yarn over and I'm going to go into the next back loop and what I do is I kind of go straight through the center and push down and that catches that back loop nice and easy. I don't normally turn my work. I can catch it very easily just by pushing through the middle and down. So as I'm working these, and I'm doing it in the back loop all the way across every single stitch, this is a super duper easy pattern because we're doing just the same stitch over and over again. So it's great for a beginner, but you turn out a really cute project. So just keep working in this back loop only all the way across, and I'll meet up with you right at the end. I'm working the second to last double crochet. Now I'm at my chain 3. Because I'm counting this as a stitch, I need to work into it. So I need to do a double crochet and I'm going to stick my hook right in that top chain of the chain 3 to make my double crochet. So make sure you don't forget to work a double crochet into this chain three, otherwise your stitch count is going to go down. If you're doing the trick that I just showed you, you're going to be working into a double crochet at the end of this row so it's a lot easier to see. If you're not using that trick and you're using a chain three, just always remember to work in your chain three, otherwise your project is going to start turning into a triangle because you're going to You're going to start decreasing every row. I'm going to stop with this arm warmer because I finished a whole row and then I'm going to pick up my other one and I'm going to do the same for row two and you'll see that row three through seven is just a repeat of this row so you can pretend that this is row three on the other side on the other one and you're just going to do the same exact thing you're going to work in that back loop And do your double crochets all the way across, so all you have to remember is work into that last chain 3 if you have one on your extra rows, not row 2 because there's definitely a chain 3, but if you're doing the trick like I'm doing, you'll have a stitch to work into. So keep going, do rows 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, and then we'll meet up, and I'm going to show you how to read your gauge with a gauge reader so that you can understand how that works, and we'll move on with our instruction. Okay, so I've finished through row 7, and you can see that I have two pretty identical sized pieces, so I'm working both sides still at the same time. Okay, so my pattern states for row 8, this is where I'm going to be making my thumbhole. So it's telling me to chain 3 and then DC in my next 5 stitches, but because I'm doing my tall chain, it's actually going to be 6 double crochets, because I'm going to put a double crochet instead of a chain 3 in that first stitch. So I'm going to have 1, 2... What this part is, is the part that's going to sit up here on your palm or on the back of your hand. So you don't want it too tall because it will cover your fingers and look kind of funny. So we're just going to do six stitches and then we're going to make our thumb hole. And the way that we're going to do that... It's very simple. We're going to make four chains, so we're just going to yarn over right where we're at, and do some chains, three and four, and then it tells us to skip the next four stitches, because we're going to make a hole for our thumb to fit through. So I'm going to skip, and you look at your stitches sideways if you need to find them easier. We have one, two, three, and four, and then I'm going to double crochet in that fifth stitch. So I'm going to yarn over, insert in that fifth stitch, and then make your double crochet. And then you're just going to double crochet the rest of your stitches. So now we just made our thumb hole, and then when we come back, I'm going to finish to the end of the row, and then come back and show you how to work into the chain stitches. So just finish the row, and we'll meet back up on the ninth row. Okay, I'm back at my chain four. When you're working your chain four, you have a few options that you can do. You can either continue working into the back loop, so you can just do a double crochet, just like a regular foundation chain, and work into that back loop only, or you can work all the way around the chain. So you can yarn over, go through the whole big hole that you have, And then do your double crochet, and you would make four of those. Since I already started with working in the back loop, I'm just going to continue with that. So I'm just going to go into the remaining three through the back loop to keep it consistent since that's what I've been doing through the whole row. And then once I come to the end of my row Nine, I'm going to do another, let's see what my pattern says. Three more rows, so 10, 11, and 12, because I'm going to make the size small for these arm warmers, because that's the size that I wear. If, um... And this is, like, totally customizable, so you don't even have to follow the pattern for how wide you need it. You can just keep trying it on. So when you're making it, stop and put it on and see how close you're getting. And remember, there's quite a bit of stretch, so when you get it, I could even sew it up probably right now, except for up here is a little stretched out. But you can just keep checking it to see if it's ready to be sewn up. So however many rows you need to work, Till it's wide enough for your arm will also work so you don't have to necessarily make as many rows as I put for a certain size. So you can customize this very easily. So I'm going to keep alternating my arm warmers working up into row 12. You work up to however wide you need yours to be and then we will meet up to join the whole arm warmer together and I'll show you how to do the joining technique to put it together so you can finish it. Okay, I made my second arm warmer's finger hole so I have them for both sides. I wanted to make sure before I did the rest of the rows that I explained that these are These are reversible because it doesn't really matter which. You make them the same way because you can put them on either hand, so just in case that's confusing at all, you make two exactly the same, and then you just put them on whichever hand you need them for. Also, let's look at gauge real quick so you can see how to measure it if you need to. This This pattern is pretty easy to adjust so it's not super necessary to meet gauge because is the having it a little bit shorter than it end of is or a little bit narrower is not going to make too much of a difference because it does stretch quite a bit. But if you want to learn how to read gauge, this Susan Bates Knit Check is my favorite because video. it has this little cutout and it's metal so it won't warp. What I normally do... As I find my V's on the top, so if it's difficult to see the front of your stitches, you can see that the color on this kind of muddles the stitches up if you're not used to reading the front of stitches to tell how many are there, use your V's. So turn your work, remove this out of the way so it's a clearer background. Use your V's and place them inside your knit check. I always do my gauge on my patterns at two inches because of this knit check, it's so easy to see the two inches. So I'm counting the V's that I have within my little window here. So I start right at the end of one V, and I count one, two, three, four, and I'm moving as I'm counting. Turn this around, it's a little bit easier because they're not folded over. Okay, let's try that again. Okay, so we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 stitches within 2 inches. So you can see the 7 V's from one side to the other. Notice I'm not pulling my work apart. I'm not trying to scrunch it. I'm just letting it relax, and then I place. My knit check right in there and you can see that I have seven stitches from the very end of one stitch to the very end of the next stitch. So that is my gauge across. So you see on the pattern it says seven DCs for two inches. Then you have your row gauge. So then you're gonna count upwards. Now because this is ribbed double crochet, you can see that this row of double crochet is much much taller than this row. Because it's ribbed, if I flip this over, now that row is the tall row and the one that I just did is the short row. So I have to count these as they're made, which means I'm not going to count like a normal size double crochet for every single row. I'm going to count what I see. So I'm going to start off with the top of that last row right at that 2 inch mark and count down. So I can see I have one row here. Another short row, another big row, and another short row. So all together I have four rows of double crochet. Even though they're not four normal rows, I'm counting it as I see it, so it's not necessarily It's four tall rows of double crochet. It's four ribbed double crochet rows. So when you're checking your gauge, depending on what kind of stitch pattern you have, it can vary quite a bit. So always go off of what your pattern is telling you. So we have four rows for two inches and seven double crochets across. So I'm going to keep going with my rows until I get to row 12 and then I'm going to show you how to join these up. I've finished both sides, or both arm warmers, and you can see I have them sitting on top of each other, and you can see that they line up just perfectly. Well, I don't want to say perfectly, but they line up really well to the point where they look the same size. So now we're going to do our joining. You'll notice that I didn't fasten off on either of my arm warmers because I'm actually going to use the loop that's already on my hook to start joining because we're going to do a single crochet join which is my favorite kind of join because it's all crochet. So let me show you how to do that. Okay, so to start our join, our single crochet join, what we want to do is decide which side's going to be our right side and which side's going to be our wrong side. Because this is ribbed double crochet in rows, it's not a big deal which side you put on front or back. They look the same on both sides. It also doesn't matter about the thumb hole because these are interchangeable. You just kind of turn it to put it on whichever hand you want, so it's not a big deal which side you pick What you can do is if maybe you had a knot in your yarn or something that is showing through one side of your fabric, you can make that your wrong side. So I'm pretending that this is the side that I like and maybe there's something wrong on this side. What I'm going to do is I'm going to fold the good side so they're touching. The bad side's on the outside right now. The reason why is because once we finish our join... We're going to turn it inside out, and then this side is going to be on the inside. So, to begin our single crochet join, we already have our loop on the hook. We are set to go. We don't need to chain one, because unlike other single crochets, we're going to tighten these down, because they're a join and not a regular single crochet. So, you notice that we're on a stitch row, so it's nice and easy to see our stitch. We're just going to go under both loops of our V, And then we're going to go across. And you'll see that we have the nice two loops from our foundation chain. So they almost look like a V as well, so it's very easy to see these two loops. So working in that back loop at the beginning really helped out. So this is my chain three from the very beginning. So I'm going under both of those loops. I'm going to lay over my yarn pull through and do one at a time if they're getting stuck. And I have my two loops, yarn over and pull through, and then tighten it down. So just pull on your tail to tighten that whole stitch down. And that's going to create a tighter seam for you. Now you just want to make sure as you're working that you're keeping your stitches lined up. So you have your normal stitch, your normal V, and then you have those two loops that kind of form a V. So you're going to go, and you can see there's like a little hole underneath them. So I'm going right under, catching both of those loops, and you can, just in case you're wondering, you can catch just one loop on both sides if you want. You can just do, like, outer loops or inner loops. It'll just change the seam a little bit. With this yarn, you probably won't even notice it, but you can check out my joining tutorials, and I actually show you what each of those look like in the video. So again, I pull down after each one. So as you work, just remember to pull down a little bit on your single crochet when you're done, so that it makes a nice tight seam. And that's what we're going to do all the way across. Just make sure you're going into the next stitch, so you can turn it sideways if you need to, find where the last one was made, and then make yours in the next. Pull all the way across, and then I'll show you what to do right at the end of your join. I'm doing my last join here, my very last stitch. If you need to test it out, remember just pull your loop like real long so it doesn't pull out. In front of my thumb hole here, there it is. And slip it on and try to see if you have enough room. Looking like the size I want it. So if it was a little bit too tight, like if my stitches were too stretched out, I would So, just pull out my joint and Just add another row. If it's too big, like I have lots of extra fabric, I could pull it out and then actually frog out a row. So this is really easy. It's a nice join that you can easily remove and fix however you want. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to fasten off and I'm going to start weaving in my ends. Let me cut my end. Okay, and then you know that I love to double knot things. And since this is kind of a join, I'm going to go ahead and do it. My quirky things, you don't have to double knot, you can just start weaving in, but I feel much more secure when everything is knotted. So, I'm going to start weaving in my ends, and since I'm already on my wrong side, I can go ahead and just start weaving through everything on this side. And I have this nice fat join. Single crochet does create a ridged join, but it's so simple to do, and it's not really It's kind of bothersome when you're wearing the arm warmers, so that's why I chose that join. You can also substitute that join for a whip stitch, or a slip stitch, or a mattress stitch. Whatever you want. Whatever joins your favorite. I'm going to weave in these ends, and then we're going to turn our gloves right side out and B. All done! So just keep weaving in your ends and I'll see you in a sec. Finished everything. I've got it all woven in. I wanted to leave one off just so you could see where the seam is and how invisible it is once you finish. So right here is where my seam is. Those are the actual loops from the single crochet. So that's why we tighten them down because otherwise those loops would be kind of bulky and big and our seam would pull apart if it If it wasn't tight enough. So, I'm loving this yarn that I used. You can check out the blog to learn more about the yarn and download the pattern, but if you have any questions or comments, leave them below and thank you for watching!