Sankaku Wrist Warmers in Crochet

Currently, there are roughly 100 knitting patterns available on my blog. Some of them have been quite successful, but others haven't ... and there are even some that I had nearly forgotten. One of these is the Triangulation Wrist Warmers knitting pattern that I published about four years ago.

So I was really surprised when I received an e-mail from a German knitter who had tried to translate it and had stumbled upon some blatant mistakes that I made when I wrote the pattern. However, she was so nice as to put them into very diplomatic questions. 

That made me review the whole pattern and correct a lot of the mistakes. ... And this activity made me think of the pattern again and gave the idea of doing something similar in crochet. Et volià - here it is. 

These wrist warmers are one in one piece - starting from the outside of the wrist and finished at the thumb. Like their knitted cousins, they are nice to showcase your variegated yarn.
I made these with fingering weight yarn. However, most of the pattern is written in a way that you can adapt it to other yarn weights as well. 

As to the name, Sankaku (三角) is the Japanese word for triangle.


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






Materials

• about 45 grams of fingering weight yarn (I used Lang Jawoll Magic, because I like the effect of the color variations)
• a 3mm crochet hook
• three removable stitch markers - one different from the others (safety pins work as well)
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Gauge or What to Measure
If you're knitting for your own hands, you just have to try it on a few times before finishing. If you're knitting for somebody else, you'll need the following measurements:

• hand circumference at wrist height or a bit lower - depending on how long you want your wrist warmers
• total height of the wrist warmers - from the point where you measured the lower circumference to just below your hand knuckles
• hand circumference just below knuckle height
• thumb circumference

As with many of my patterns, it is written in a way that you can adjust it to your hand size and won't include exact stitch counts but rather you'd be asked to continue until something is wide enough to fit around your hands or similar. If you're uncomfortable with instructions like that, the pattern might not be for you.

However, I will give you an example of the wrist warmers I crocheted in purple.

The wrist warmers I made measured 17 cm in height and had about 19 cm circumference at the lower edge.

Abbreviations and Stitches

• ch: chain 
• sc: single crochet (American notation)
• sctbl: single crochet through back loop: http://crochet.about.com/od/crochetterms/tp/back-loops-only-or-blo.htm
• 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 (in case of this pattern, it's 2 sctbl into the sctbl below): http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-increase-with-single-crochet.html
• dec or sctog: decrease by working 2 single crochet stitches 
• tc: turning chain

Construction

Construction

One mitt is worked in one piece - and in five parts as shown in the picture on the right.
Part 1 is started with two stitches only and worked back and forth with increases in the middle and on the sides to make up a triangle.
Part 2 is worked in the round - BUT, you will be changing directions after every row, i.e. one row is worked from the outside and the next from the inside of the piece. There are increases at the outer edge and decreases at the inner edge of the mitt.
Part 3 is worked back and forth around the inner edge of the hand and creating an open edging at the top.
Part 4 is started with a chain above the thumb and then worked in the round - but again changing directions after each round. The stitch count is decreased to fit snugly around your thumb.
Part 5 (the thumb) is the only part that is truely worked in the round without altering the crocheting direction.


Instructions

NOTE 1: all increase and decrease stitches in this part are crocheted through the back loop of the underlying stitch only.

Part I - Worked Flat
Row 1: ch2, 1 tc
Row 2: inc, inc, 1 tc
Row 3: inc, inc, place marker (will be called top marker), inc, inc, 1 tc

Row 4: inc, sctbl to top marker, inc, inc, sctbl to 1 bef end, inc, 1 tc
Repeat row 4 until the lower edge of the triangle is wide enough to fit around your wrist. Don't work the last turning chain. Your piece will now look similar to illustration 1.

For me the piece was wide enough after row 16, that means that I had a total of 64 stitches - or 32 per slope of the triangle.

NOTE 2: As to the handling of the stitch markers for increases around a point: in crochet, it's difficult to place a stitch marker between two stitches, so I'd do as follows: when I reached the point where the two increases were to be worked, I removed the marker, did the two increases and afterwards place the marker into the first stitch of the second increase. That way, after turning my work, the stitch marker would mark the first stitch into which I had to increase in the next row.

NOTE 3: During part I, your stitch count will increase by 4 sts in each row - or by 2 sts per slope of the triangle. I.e. the number of sctbls between in increases also increases by 2 sts per row (on each slope). So, if you prefer not to use stitch markers, you can count your sctbl stitches from beginning increase to middle increase. In row 4, there are 2 sts, in row 5 4 sts, in row 6 6 sts, in row 7 8 sts and so on.

Part II
Fold the piece around the middle (see illustration 2) and attach the two lower tips of the triangle to each other with a slip stitch. Place a marker here (will be called lower marker). Work a turning chain and turn work.
Row 1 (inside): dec, sctbl to top marker, inc, inc, sctbl to 2 bef lower marker, dec, connect to first dec of the row with slip stitch, tc and turn
Row 2 (outside): dec, sctbl to top marker, inc, inc, sctbl to 2 bef lower marker, dec, connect to first dec of the row with slip stitch, tc and turn
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until the edge of the top marker (i.e. the longer side edge) is as high as you want the mitt to be. DON'T TURN after the last row.

For me this was the case after 9 repeats or 18 rows.

NOTE 4: The change of direction after each row is done to keep the texture of the sctbl-rows.

NOTE 5: Stitch marker handling for the decreases ...

NOTE 6: During part II, each row has the same number of increases than decreases. That means that your stitch count stays the same.

Illustrations (click to enlarge)

Part III
From now on the working direction will change, from around the top marker, to around the lower marker. To keep the texture of the piece, the next row should be started at the top marker - however, the working yarn currently is at the lower marker.
If you're not averse to cutting yarn in the middle of a project, cut your yarn and attach it at the upper marker for row 1 of part III. If you're like me (and want to avoid weaving in more ends at any cost), you can cheat a bit and do slip stitches on the inside (or just through the back loop of the current row) to the top. Once you crochet back tbl from the inside, these slip stitches will be hidden. When you've reached the top marker turn with a turning chain.

Row 1 (inside): dec, sctbl. to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef top marker, dec, tc
Row 2 (outside): dec, sctbl. to 2 bef end, dec, tc

Remove the top marker after these rows.
After row 1 your piece should look similar to illustration 3.

Row 3 (inside): dec, sctbl. to 2 bef end, dec, tc
Row 4 (outside): dec, sctbl. to 2 bef end, dec, tc

NOTE 7: Rows 2 to 3 don't have decrases around the lower marker, i.e. the wrist warmers will get wider at this point. This widening makes a sort of thumb gusset. If you feel - while working part III - that you need more room to accomodate the widening of your hands, you can always do another row 3 or 4 instead of a row 5 or 6.

Row 5 (inside): dec, sctbl. to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 2 bef end, dec, tc
Row 6 (outside): dec, sctbl. to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 2 bef end, dec, tc

Repeat rows 5 and 6 until the upper edge covers about 75% of the hand circumference just below your knuckles.

For me this was the case after 12 rows.


Part IV 
Now the opening above the thumb needs to be closed. This is done by crocheting a chain from one of the upper edges to the other. (See illustrations 4 and 5).

Chain: place a marker (called marker 1) chain 10 and connect this chain to the other edge with a slip stitch, tc and turn, place a marker here as well (called end marker, since it marks the end of a round)
Try on the wrist warmer to see whether it fits or measure whether the total upper circumference is equal to the measurement you took. It should fit comfortably. If it's too tight or too wide, adjust the number of chain stitches accordingly.

Round 1 (inside): sc to 2 bef marker 1, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 2 bef end marker, dec, connect to first stitch of that round with slip stitch, tc and turn
Round 2 (outside): dec, sctbl to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef marker 1, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef end marker, dec, connect to first stitch of that round with slip stitch, tc and turn

After these rounds your piece should look similar to illustration 6.
Round 3 (inside): dec, sctbl to 2 bef marker 1, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 2 bef end marker, dec, connect to first stitch of that round with slip stitch, tc and turn
Round 4 (outside): dec, sctbl to 1 bef lower marker, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef marker 1, dec, dec, sctbl to 1 bef end marker, dec, connect to first stitch of that round with slip stitch, tc and turn

Try it on to check whether the opening fits snugly around your thumb. If it's still too wide, work another round. Repeat.

If you ended on an inside round, turn your work before moving on to part V. If your last round was an outside round, don't turn, but go on working in the same direction. Part V will only be worked from the outside.

Part V
Now the opening is just wide enough to fit snugly around your thumb. Remove all markers except end marker.
Round 1: sctbl to end marker
Round 2: sc to end marker
Repeat round 2 three more times (or until the thumb is as long as you'd like it).
End with a slip stitch into the next stitch.

Weave in ends.
Make two.