So, I just made the fabulous Bird-in-Hand Mittens. I loved this pattern and after I finished the first one, I wanted the second one immediately. However, once I cast-on for the second mitten, it lagged at only an inch long for like 3 days. Why you ask?
The knitted braid! On the first mitten, I did the braid twice and when I reached the third braid, I ended up doing a purl round instead. It’s just that every time I went do do one of those braids, it took me like an hour to make it around. Definitely fidly knitting.
So. There I was on my second mitten, contemplating how I can make the mittens match but get to the “fun” fair-isle parts of the mitten faster. Suddenly, I had it! A slipped line of crochet stitches. The best part is that you can join the braid seamlessly!
Here’s a tutorial:
First, you’ll want to have the line of stitches that you want your braid to be on top of. I marked that in my mittens with this little green string like this:
First, insert a crochet hook into the side of a stitch and pull up a loop. You’ll have one loop on your crochet hook.
Next, staying on the same LINE of stitches, insert your crochet hook through the fabric, one stitch over from where your current loop is coming from. Remember that one stitch has two legs to it.
Behind/underneath the fabric, hook the yarn.
Pull the yarn up through the fabric. You’ll have two loops on your crochet hook.
Lift the right most stitch over the stitch you just pulled up, and off the crochet hook (much like if you were binding off). It looks just like the braid does! And it’s so much quicker, especially once you get a rhythm going!
So how do you do the seamless join?
Well, once you get around, you’ll have one loop, right at the base of where you started.
Insert the tip of the crochet hook right into the heart of the first stitch that you made (in between the two legs).
Cut the yarn in the back (with about 6 inches left for working with) and pull the string up through the fabric so the end is now on the right side.
Now, you’ll basically be duplicate stitching to create the seamless look. Thread the yarn on a tapestry needle and pull it under the two legs of the stitch directly to the left of the stitch though which you pulled the yarn through the heart of.
Finally, put the yarn back through the “heart” that you pulled the working yarn up through.
Weave in the end and push and pull the yarn as necessary to even out your tension.
Voila! You have a seamless braid!
I hope this was helpful!
That is fantastic…so easy. It’s one of those things that I look at and say: “OMG, that’s so easy to do, why didn’t I think of that?”
Thanks for the tip, I’ll be using it.
What a great technique! Thank you for taking the time to show us how to do it. I’ve never tried to knit one of those sideways braids (probably because I’ve yet to make a pair of mittens like yours) but it’s nice to know there’s a quicker alternative.
Beautiful mittens, by the way!
Great idea for those braids! I finished these (gift mittens) last night and then noticed that I had forgotten to make the last braid across one needle so this braid went 2/3 the way around. NO WAY I was taking it out and I whipped out the crochet hook and finished it off in exactly the way you described. You can’t even tell!
Thank you so much for the tutorial! I hope I have a project finished soon so I can add a braid to it.
That is a really great tutorial. Clear directions and really good pics. Thanks!
Great Tutoria! Thanks for sharing. I’m going to bookmark this on delicious.
That’s sooo clever, thank you for sharing! *^v^*
That’s basically just a crocheted slip stitch.
Bravo, nicely done! Great photos too!
If you want to study further on this subject checkout the technique of Tambour work. ( tambour needlework, tambour lace, tambour crochet, etc)
Double kudos to you for figuring this out all on your own!
)
Excellent! I like the seamless join best of all. There’s definitely more of a jog on the braid on my pair.
Ooh, thanks for that tutorial! The mitts are beautiful!
What a nice idea. Thanks for the tutorial.
So smart! I was browsing Bird in Hands on Ravelry and made my way to your site as soon as I saw the mention of “braid” and “easy” in the same sentence. I had a really hard time with the cuff on my first (and so far only) Bird in Hand (breaking wood needles and bending Addi Turbos kind of problems) and was kind of dreading starting the second one – but not now! Thanks. By the way, I also got my graduate degree at IU … Go Hoosiers.
I love your tutorials, and the photos make everything so clear and easy to understand. Thanks for your hard work!
p.s. I tagged you for a meme on my blog. Feel free to skip it if it’s not your thing.
This is a great tutorial! Thanks! Will use this technique in future projects…for Definite!
Wow! That’s really cool! I made two pairs of these mittens and the first pair only has one braid each (I got annoyed quickly) and the second pair I left it out all together! It wasn’t work the frustration! I love this technique though! I may go and add it now!
Thank you so much! I am finishing off a simple pair of mittens and wanted to put the braid in it. I had no idea how difficult it was. This definitely is the way to go and it has great potential for using contrasting colour.
Great tutorial. Your braids look beautiful. Thanks for sharing!