Suwon Mitts

My friend and I had travelled to South Korea as part of work, about 15 years ago. It was the first time we had been abroad and being from a tropical place, we had no idea about how to cope with the cold weather. The gloveless hands and unprotected feet must have raised many a curious glance. We did learn about these things and moved on but this first time remains a memory.

It was in the city of Suwon where I purchased my first ever woolen mittens and socks and hat. And it is where I explored yarn shops and discovered circular knitting needles. 🙂

SUWON MITTS are fingerless mitts featuring cable-like crochet stitches. Crochet patterns generally use post-stitches like fpdc and bpdc to mimic knitted cables. This pattern just plays around with hdc and sl st to create simple knit-like cables.

Hook

4 mm

Yarn

Isaac Mizrahi Craft Premier DK weight yarn, about 200m (225 yards).

Estimated Finished Size

8” length X 7.5” circumference

Gauge

5 hdc per inch

Abbreviations

Please see our standard abbreviations.

Hdc – half double crochet

Blo – back loop only

Notes

Make the sl st rows fairly loose, so that it is easy to work the subsequent row.

Hand circumference adjustment

Repeat Rows 10-11 to increase by half an inch. Repeat Rows 10-13 for 1 inch increase.

Hand length adjustment

Starting Ch Count = Multiple of 5  + 2.

Add/subtract 5 ch to starting ch for 1 inch increase/decrease.

Thumbhole can be easily positioned into any 5 ch repeat.

If you are unfamiliar with the “third loop” of HDC, this picture may help you:

Pattern

Ch 42.

Row 1 (WS): Hdc into third ch from hook, hdc into each ch across, ch 2, turn. (40 hdc)

Row 2 (RS): Hdc through blo of each hdc  across, ch 1, turn.

Row 3: Sl st through third loop of each hdc across, ch 2, turn.

Row 4: Hdc across, ch 2, turn.

Row 5: [4 hdc through third loop, sl st through all 3 loops of next hdc] 2 times, ch 4, sk 4 ch, sl st through all 3 loops of next hdc, [4 hdc through third loop, sl st through all 3 loops of next hdc] 5 times, ch 2, turn.

Row 6:  25 hdc through blo, 4 hdc in 4 ch space, hdc through blo  across, ch 1, turn.

Row 7:  Sl st through third loop of each hdc across, ch 2, turn.

Row 8:  Hdc across, ch 2, turn.

Row 9:  Hdc through third loop of each hdc across, ch 1, turn.

Row 10: Sl st through blo of each hdc across, ch 2, turn.

Row 11: Hdc across, ch 2, turn.

Row 12: [4 hdc through blo, sl st through all 3 loops of next hdc] 8 times, ch 2, turn.

Row 13: [4 hdc through third loop, 1 hdc through blo] 8 times, ch 1, turn.

Repeat Rows 10-13 4 more times. See note above about how to adjust the width.

Fasten off leaving a long tail. Fold the work in half, lengthwise with the right side turned in. Thread a tapestry needle through the yarn tail and whip stitch the long edges together.

Make another.