How to Crochet Fingerless Gloves: Easy Beginner Tutorial

You will need worsted-weight yarn (medium 4 on the yarn label), a 4mm crochet hook, scissors, and a tapestry needle for finishing. The video uses Himalaya Ceylan DK, but any soft acrylic, wool, or wool blend in a medium-4 weight will work.

One ball is enough for both mitts. Pick a colour you actually want to wear - this project is fast enough that you might make three pairs before you put the hook down.

Start with a slipknot on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the loop to make your first chain stitch. Keep going - yarn over, pull through - until you have 36 chains.

This foundation chain becomes the cuff opening. Thirty-six chains gives an average adult hand circumference. If you have small hands, drop to 32. For larger hands or more length, add a few extra.

Now turn back and work a row of single crochet into the chain. Insert your hook into the second chain from the hook (the one right next to your hook does not count). Yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over again, pull through both loops. That is one single crochet.

Keep going - one single crochet into every chain - until you reach the slipknot at the far end. The slipknot itself is never a stitch, so do not work into it. When you finish you should have 35 single crochets on that first row.

Chain one and turn the work. From here on every row is single crochet, but worked only into the back loop of each stitch. That is the trick that creates the ribbed texture.

Look at the top of the row. Each stitch has a small V made of two loops - a front loop closer to you and a back loop further away. Slide your hook between the V (not under both loops the way you normally would) and catch only the back loop. Yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through both. Keep going across.

That is the whole pattern. At the end of every row, chain one, turn, and work back-loop single crochet across again. Keep going for 32 rows total.

You should see ribbed bumps starting to form on one side - every second row makes a bump. When you have 32 rows, you should see about 16 bumps. The rectangle will be roughly the same width as your wrist when stretched, which is what you want.

Fasten off with a long tail and thread it onto a tapestry needle. Fold the rectangle in half so the two short ends meet, with the right side facing in. Stitch the long edge closed by passing the needle through one side and out the other, then back the same way for each pair of stitches.

Stop after about 11 centimeters. That gap you are leaving above the seam becomes the thumb opening. Secure the yarn by going back and forth through the same few stitches three times.

Thread the tapestry needle onto the yarn tail at the top of the mitt. Stitch the very top closed for about a centimeter - just enough to anchor the corner. That keeps the cuff opening clean above the thumb hole.

Secure the yarn by going back and forth three times through the same stitches. Cut the yarn close, weave in the ends, and turn the mitt right-side out. You have one finished fingerless glove. Make a second one exactly the same way and the pair is ready to wear.