Adrie’s Speedy Fingerless Gloves

Adrie Jacobs is a friend of ours with loads of energy. Besides being a wife and mother of 2 toddlers, this former SA champion gymnast runs a busy biokinetics practice and even manages to squeeze in a few half marathons and trail runs on weekends. (Yes, this does all sound crazy!)

How can she possibly crochet as well?  Simple really, Adrie crochets in between patients, when she’s waiting for the kettle to boil, on their regular trips to Struisbaai and when the kids are in bed. Her caveat is that whatever she crochets must be quick and easy.

So we challenged her to design and crochet a pair of mittens, and here they are. They use less than a ball cowgirlblues sockweight yarn and shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours to complete.

These mitts could be a great gift for a friend or spoil yourself with a pair in your favourite colour.

Speedy Fingerless Gloves

Materials: 1 x 50g cowgirlblues sock yarn
Hook:  4mm

Pattern
Begin at the wrist end and Chain 35, and join with a slipped stitch (sl st) to form a ring
Round 1: Chain 2, half double crochet (hdc) in every chain and join with a sl st in the top of the initial chain 2
Round 2-3: Repeat round 1
Round 4: Sl st across to beginning of next round, skip 4 hdc, *work a Shell in next st, sk 4 hdc; repeat from * all the around (7 shells) join with a sl st
Round 5: Work a Beginning Shell into the ch1 space at the centre of the first shell, then continue around to make 7 shells
Repeat: Repeat round 5 until you have completed 7 rounds for short mittens and 11 for the long mittens
Thumb instructions are different for left and right hands

Left hand
Work a beginning shell into the centre of the first shell, ch5, skip next shell, work a shell into the centre of each remaining shell (6 shells and 1 ch 5 space)
Next round:  Work a beginning shell into the centre of the first shell, work a shell into 3^rd chain of the ch5 space, work a shell into each shell, join (7 shells)
Continue with shell pattern for another 4 rounds

Right hand
Work a beginning shell into the centre of the first shell, work a shell into the centre of the next 4 shells, ch5, skip next shell, work a shell into the centre of the last remaining shell; join (6 shells, 1 ch5 space)
Work a beginning shell into the centre of the first shell, work a shell into the centre of the next 4 shells, work a shell into the 3^rd chain of the ch5 space, work a shell into the last shell, join (7 shells)
Continue with shell pattern for another 4 rounds

Special stitches:
Beginning shell: Ch3, dc, ch1, 2dc
Shell: 2dc, ch1, 2dc