Crochet U-Turn Mitts

Do you like constructions a bit out of the ordinary? And are you - as me - not really fond of weaving in ends? Then this crochet pattern is made for you.
These fingerless gloves are worked in on piece, starting at the outer wrists and ending at the thumb - in an interesting construction that great to show off your variegated yarn.
A knitted version of these mitts can be found in this blogpost.

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.




Other Languages
Thanks to sannemethorst (Ravelry user name) a dutch version of this pattern is available here.


Materials

• about 40-45 grams of fingering weight yarn
• 3mm crochet hook
• 5 removable stitch markers (e.g. safety pins) 
• tapestry needle to weave in ends

Abbreviations

• ch: chain 
• sc: single crochet
• sl st: slip stitch: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-crochet-the-slip-stitch.html
• inc: increase by working 2 single crochet stitches into 1 sc below: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-increase-with-single-crochet.html
• sctbl: single crochet through back loop: http://crochet.about.com/od/crochetterms/tp/back-loops-only-or-blo.htm
• dec or sctog: decrease by working 2 single crochet stitches together: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-decrease-single-crochet.html 
• join: joining pieces with crochet: in order to join to pieces (or, in case of this pattern, the two sides of one piece) hold the pieces together with wrong sides facing and insert the crochet hook into both pieces at the same time, a foto tutorial can be found here (scroll down to “Joining with Crochet” http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/FEATwin08TT.php)
• [y]*x: work the sequence y (within the brackets) x times.
• crochet short rows (as done in this pattern (*)): work sc's to the stitch indicated, then turn work (without a turning-chain) and start into the 2nd sc; when you're working over this turn in a following row, always crochet into the turning-sc as well.
  (*) there may be different methods out there, feel free to try them.

How the half-circle is worked in this pattern?
Basically, in each RS-row, you have to increase by 4 stitches – evenly distributed whereas in WS-rows no increases occur. It is important to start the increases at different points in each row to avoid a visible edges, so I started increasing at a random stitch in the first quarter
So, if you start with 4 stitches that will form the half-circle, you start off as follows
row 1: [inc]*4
row 2 and all even-numbered rows: sc all sts
row 3: [sc inc]*4 (i.e. there is a distance of 1 st between the increases)
row 5: [inc sc*2]*4 (i.e. there is a distance of 2 sts between the increases)
row 7: [sc*2 inc sc]*4 (i.e. there is a distance of 3 sts between the increases)
row 9: [sc inc sc*4]*4 (i.e. there is a distance of 4 sts between the increases)


Gauge or what to measure beforehand
You should measure the circumference of your wrists.


Construction

These mitts are knitted in three parts (see picture on the right):

• Part 1 covers the wrists, it is worked with a 10 stitch wide ribbing (always working into the back loop) and a single crochet body which includes the half-circle. This part ends with a row that join the two sides together (1st join).
• Part 2 covers the palms up to the knuckles. It is worked back and forth and consists of an upper ribbing edge (also 10 stitches that are worked into the back loop) and its main body. It also ends with a row where the two side of the upper ribbing are joined together (2nd join) - leaving a hole for the thumb. 
• Part 3 is worked around the thumb - to create the same stitch pattern than parts 2 and 3, it is also worked back and forth with a slip stitch to join the "rounds" together.

Instructions
The pictures numbered 1 to 6 will give you and idea how the piece looks like during the stages of creation. On the pictures you see stitch markers. Strictly speaking, it’s not necessary really to use them, but it may be convenient as they provide a visual (and haptic?) aid. Therefore, I have included instruction for working with stitch markers in brackets. Since this is crochet, the marker must be carried up to the current row. I'd also advise to mark the RS (e.g. with a safety pin).

Part 1
Chain 23 (22 stitches and 1 turning-chain)
Row 1 (RS): sc 10, (place marker) sc 10, (place marker), [inc]*2, turn piece by 180 degrees and continue on the lower edge of your chain, [inc]*2, sc 10 (place marker), sc 10, (place marker), 1 turning-chain
Row 2 (WS): sctbl 10, sc 10, sc 4, place marker (="middle-marker") sc 4, sc 10, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain
Row 3 (RS): sctbl 10, sc 10, from here to the last 20 stitches (or between the current and the next marker): increase by 4 stitches – evenly spaced out and started at a random point to form the half-circle, sc 10 sctbl 10, 1 turning chain
Row 4 (WS): sctbl 10, sc 10, sc until the last 20 stitches (or until the last but one marker), sc 10, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until the lover edge fits around your wrists - for me this was the case after row 17. After a few repeats, your piece should look similar to the one in picture 1. End with an odd-numbered row.

If you're not comfortable with the instructions above, here are the first odd-numbered rows spelled out:
Row 3 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 1, inc]*4, sc 10 sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 1 stitch distance between the increases)
Row 5 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [inc, sc 2]*4, sc 10 sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 2 stitches distance between the increases)
Row 7 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 2, inc, sc 1]*4, sc10,  sctbl10, 1 turning chain (-> 3 stitches distance between the increases)
Row 9 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 1, inc, sc 3]*4, sc10, sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 4 stitches distance between the increases)
Row 11 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 3, inc, sc 2]*4, sc10, sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 5 stitches distance between the increases)
Row 13 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 1, inc, sc 5]*4, sc10,  sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 6 stitches distance between the increases)
Row 15 (RS):  sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 4, inc, sc 3]*4, sc10, sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 7 stitches distance between the increases)
Row 17 (RS): sctbl 10, sc 10, [sc 7, inc, sc 1]*4, sc10, sctbl 10, 1 turning chain (-> 8 stitches distance between the increases)

Fold in half with right sides together and join the first 20 stitches, i.e. inserting your hook into the front and the back stitch at the same time (see picture 2). Remove all markers except for "middle marker".

Part 2
Turn mitt back right sides out (be sure to secure your last loop while you're doing this) and start working a small triangle on top of the joined stitches as follows (see picture 3):
Row 1 (RS-WS-RS): sc 3, turn, sc 5, turn, sc 2 (you're back at the point where you started this row)
Row 2 (RS-WS-RS): sc 5, turn, sc 9, turn, sc 4 (you're back at the point where you started this row)
Row 3 (RS-WS-RS): sc 7, turn, sc 13, turn, sc 6 (you're back at the point where you started this row)

Row 4: crochet (sc's) up to middle-marker and chain 11 (i.e. 10 + 1 turning-chain) (see picture 4)
Row 5: sc 9, dec, sc 2, turn; sc 1, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain (and turn - this is a short row),
     sctbl 9, dec, sc 22, dec, sc to end (i.e. middle-marker), sc 1 from gap between last st and last row's chain, sc 10 into the lower edge of chain, 1 turning chain (see picture 5)
Row 6: sc 9, dec, dec, sc 1, turn; sc 1, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain;
    sctbl 9, dec, sc 5, dec, sc to the last 17 sts, dec, sc 5, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain
Row 7: sctbl 9, dec, sc 1, turn; sc 1, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain;
    sctbl 9, dec, sc 1, turn; sc 1, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain;
    sctbl 9, dec, sc to last 10 sts, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain
Row 8: sctbl 9, dec, sc 1, turn; sc 1, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain;
    sctbl 9, dec, sc 1, turn; sc 1, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain;
    sctbl 9, dec, sc to last 10 sts, sctbl 10, 1 turning-chain

Repeat rows 7and 8 a few times and end with an odd-numbered row -  until there are only about 36 stitches left (2x 10 ribbing, and about 16 for the thumb hole.  For me this after two more repeats (i.e. row 13, if counted on).
If it feel as if the mitts gets too wide, you can always do a row with two decreases (similar to row 6).

You can - if necessary - now widen the upper ribbing by working 1 or 2 widening-rows as follows:
Widening-Row: sctbl 10, turning-chain"; sctbl 10, turning-chain

If you want to avoid cutting yarn, it is necessary that your last stitch is a the top of the ribbing before you start joining the sides. That's why the widening-row is actually two rows - back-and-forth

Now hold the right sides of upper ribbing together and join 10 stitches (see picture 6) - this will look and feel odd, but only for the 10 join stitches.
Turn the upper ribbing back (inside-out) making sure to secure the open loop while you're doing this - now you can start the thumb.

Part 3 (Thumb)

I decided to work the thumbs back and forth, to get a consistent "stitch pattern" with the rest of the mitt. If you don't mind the change in the stitch pattern, you can also work this part in the round.

Hold your mitt so that the upper ribbing is down, i.e. that you can work stitches into it.

Row 1: work sc's into the edge of the upper ribbing (the number depending on the number of widening-rows you worked at the end of part 2) - at least 1 (if you didn't do any widening-rows) or the number of widening-rows+1, place marker; work sc's into all sc's that are left over from part 2, work 1 sc into gap, and join with sl st to first stitch of row, turning-chain and turn
Row 2: sc 1, dec, sc to one before marker, dec, sc to end, join with sl st to first stitch of row, turning-chain and turn
Repeat row 2 until the the hole fits snugly around your thumb - I repeated until there were 16 sts.

Row 3: sc into all sts, join with sl st to last st, turning-chain (except for very last row)
Repeat until you have worked a total of 6 thumb rows.

Cut yarn and weave in ends.

Make two.

Yarn

The yarn I used here is called Zwerger Opal Hundertwasser - colorway "Blinde Venus" (yarn link on Ravelry).

This pattern was featured at Pinbellish Link Party at Purfylle.com.