Whether you’re looking to make a pair of glittens or a pair of fingerless mittens, this is the perfect starting point!  While working on my latest glitten pattern I realized that you initially start out with a nice set of fingerless hand warmers.  Great for keeping your palms and wrists warm while allowing you full access to your fingers and thumbs, great for crafting during cold winter months (or all year long if you’re always cold like me).

**If you are here for the tutorial of how to make my glitten pattern, follow this tutorial through completion, then move on to the tutorial of adding the fingers and finger cap here.  For the written pattern, please visit the pattern page here. **

To start out, you will begin with working the cuff.  The cuff is worked by single crocheting into the back loops only of each row.

Once complete, you will join the ends together so that you have a cylinder.  You can do this one of two ways.  Either by fastening off at the end of your last row and mattress stitching the last row to the foundation row.  Or by leaving your yarn intact and slip stitching the back loops of your last row to the loops of your foundation row.  I prefer the second method, so that you have one less end to weave in, and will not have to rejoin the primary color later on when working the fair isle pattern.  However, this method is ever so slightly bulkier and does not blend in as well, so I’ll leave that up to your discretion of which join method you choose.

Once the cuff is complete, you will join in your secondary color and pick up 30 single crochet stitches around the top of the cylinder.

For each color change, rather than fastening off and rejoining, I just carried the non used color behind the join of each round. 

You only need to carry it up and work it into the slip stitch and chain 1, then can drop it until the round you need it for.  The exception is while working the tapestry section.  For this portion, you will carry the secondary color behind each stitch like so:

You’ll continue the palm portion by working one more single crochet round in your secondary color, and then the fun of the tapestry crochet begins.

If you have never worked tapestry crochet before, fear not, it is actually MUCH easier than you might think.  If you can single crochet, you can tapestry crochet.

The color changes for the Arroway glitten pattern is worked when you inser your hook into the stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop with the primary color, then yarn over in your secondary color and pull that loop through both the primary and secondary loop on your hook.

My one note is to make sure you work the color change stitches a little looser than your typical gauge, this will make it easier to work the following round.

You will simply follow the provided graph and make the color changes as shown for each round. After completing the tapestry section, you will work the thumb hole in the next round.  To create the thumb hole, you will chain 7 and skip 7 stitches, then continue working the round as normal.

When the pattern indicates, you will switch back to your primary color and work a few rounds of regular single crochets.

Last, you will work 1-2 more rounds (as the pattern indicates) in the secondary color, then fasten off and weave in the ends.

The hand warmers are now complete!  Woot Woot!

To continue on making the glittens, follow the rest of the tutorial here.