Crocheting Fur for the Top of Gloves?

Cyinda
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 213 Posts

December 10, 20080 found this helpful

It's crazy! I'm working on a pair of matching hat & gloves like this right now for a Christmas gift! What a coincidence! You don't need a pattern... And, Don't believe people who say you can't crochet with eyelash or "nubby" style yarn. Yes, it's better & easier if you knit with these specialty yarns, (& you use less yarn if you knit instead of crochet) but you CAN use them for crocheting in some instances.

1) First you'll need to either sew on or crochet on a starting row of thinner yarn or string that's the same color as your yarn... Make the holes (where your hook will go in) about 1/3 an inch apart (just big enough to slide a large crochet hook through)... Then when you're done with your "sew-on" row, you can crochet into it.

2) Single Crochet into the area you just sewed on & continue to keep crocheting in a spiral design (or in rows of rounds). You should thread a different color of yarn through the stitch where one row stops & the next row begins,m even if you are doing a spiral or place a saftey pin on it to mark the spot. Then when you've got enough rows of the fun fir crocheted, do 2 slip stitches at the end then pull the yarn back through the last loop then tie it off & thread it back through. With FunFur, you'll need a large hook, use a crochet hook size J, K, L, M, N, O or P. FunFur calls for a "K" sized crochet hook, but you can also go larger. (but never smaller) The "fur" type yarn (that looks like actual eyelashes) calls for a "P". (Just don't use that HUGE plastic hook, the biggest one they sell unless you are using 2 strands of novelty yarn)

3) Another important trick when crocheting with FunFur is to is to use the back of your work as your front... What would normally be considered the front part of your work should be the BACK side of your finished project. This is because the back side tends to have more eyelashes sticking out & it will be fluffier & look more "finished". This is because when you crochet the Funfur kind of "flips" backwards... You'll know what I mean when you see it.

4) When you're are done crocheting your project you'll need to take a toothbrush or a soft brush & brush out or pick out the fluffy part of the novelty yarn to the front (which will be the back-side as you've worked the project). If you don't take the buried eyelashes out & fluff your project then they'll be lots of good-looking yarn pieced under the stitches.

* Sometimes when I don't have a large-eyed needle to sew a piece of yarn or string through for the starting row, I'll instead actually crochet the FunFur DIRECTLY on to my project... Because the main body of the FunFur is super thin I can crochet it directly on to a store-bought hat or pair of gloves that's been knitted with much thinner yarn. I just need to use a tiny crochet hook (size "F" or smaller) that will fit through the original knitted piece without stretching out the holes in it's knitted stitches to much.... Yes, you'll have to tug on the eyelash yarn a bit AND you'll also have to keep your tension SUPER loose so there's a gap between this first row of stitches that's big enough to insert your larger crochet hook later in the project. This takes a bit of practice, but I'm far to lazy to always embroider or sew on the first row (even thought sometimes it would actually be easier to do it that way)!

** I don't recommend doing anything BUT single crochet or slip stitches with Fun Fur. Also, if you can do a simple knit stitch, then you'll have a better pair of gloves or a hat with FunFur... What I do is crochet into the base of the hat or gloves (see above * for directions) then I'll take my crochet hook & keep crocheting around the project without dropping my last crochet stitches off (Like in Afghan stitch) then I'll thread these loops on to 3 knitting needles (size 11) & knit the trim in a spiral as if it was a cuff... And since it's a spiral & I'm knitting in the round I don't need to switch to purl stitches, only knit, which is quicker for me. But a warning, even though FunFur yarn works up better when it's knitted, it's one heck of a hassle to find the loop if you drop a stitch... in fact, you may as well start all over aging at the beginning! YIKES!

---> Drop me a note here on ThriftyFun on I haven't made myself clear. I've been crocheting since the early 1970's, so I've got the hang of it & can make things with or without a pattern...(I think I even crochet in my sleep!)

Cyinda