Cordatus Colourwork Cowl & Mitts in SweetGeorgia BFL Sock - Downloadable PDF

Cordatus Colourwork Cowl & Mitts – Pattern Summary

The Cordatus Colourwork Cowl & Mitts is a beautifully coordinated stranded knitting set designed by Varian Brandon and published by SweetGeorgia Yarns. The pattern name is drawn from the Latin word meaning heart shaped, a reference that runs throughout the design: a central heart motif anchors both the cowl and the mitts, while scrollwork and small crosses appear in the border and secondary design elements. The result is a richly patterned, heirloom-quality accessories set that works up in three carefully chosen colours of SweetGeorgia sock yarn.

What Is Being Made

The Cordatus Cowl

The cowl is a circular, seamless tube worked entirely in the round. It measures 29 inches (73.5 cm) in circumference, making it a generously sized cowl that can be worn looped once or draped loosely around the neck and shoulders. The finished fabric showcases the full colourwork motif repeat, including the signature heart design, scrollwork accents, and a six-round corrugated rib at each edge that frames the stranded body neatly and adds structural stability.

The Cordatus Mitts

The mitts are fingerless mittens worked in the round, measuring 10¼ inches (26 cm) in length and 4 inches (10 cm) in width. Like the cowl, they feature the heart-centred colourwork motif and corrugated ribbing borders. The thumb is constructed using the afterthought thumb method, in which scrap yarn is used to hold thumb stitches during the initial knitting pass and the thumb is returned to and completed afterward. This technique keeps the colourwork pattern uninterrupted across the hand.

Techniques Used

• Stranded colourwork (Fair Isle-style knitting): The primary technique throughout the set. In stranded knitting, two colours are carried across each round simultaneously, with the unused colour floated loosely across the wrong side of the fabric. The Cordatus pattern is cleverly constructed so that only two colours are ever worked in a single round, even though three colours are used across the full design. This makes the colourwork more approachable for knitters who are newer to carrying multiple strands.
• Knitting in the round: Both the cowl and the mitts are worked entirely in the round with no seaming required. The pattern supports multiple methods of circular knitting, including two circular needles or double-pointed needles.
• Corrugated ribbing: A traditional stranded knitting technique in which the knit stitches and purl stitches are worked in different colours. This produces a visually striking, colour-blocked rib that is slightly less elastic than standard ribbing but provides a polished, decorative border consistent with the colourwork aesthetic.
• Afterthought thumb construction: Used for the mitts, this method involves knitting a length of scrap yarn across the thumb opening during the main knitting pass, then returning to pick up those stitches and complete the thumb separately. It is a clean, tidy approach that allows the colourwork pattern to flow uninterrupted across the back of the hand.
• Make 1 (M1) increases: Referenced in the abbreviations, these lifted increases are used to shape the mitts, particularly around the thumb gusset area.

Stitches Used

• Knit stitch (k): The foundation stitch for all stranded sections worked in the round.
• Purl stitch (p): Used within the corrugated ribbing sections to create the alternating knit-purl texture.
• Make 1 (M1): A lifted increase stitch used for shaping.
• Corrugated rib: A combination of knit and purl stitches worked in contrasting colours across six rounds at each border edge of both the cowl and the mitts.

Colourwork Design Details

The Cordatus motif system uses three distinct colours across the full pattern, referred to as Shade A, Shade B, and Shade C. In the sample shown by SweetGeor