Fingerless Gloves Pattern

Fingerless Glove Pattern

Notes about my handspun art yarns:

Most of my yarn have dimensional design elements. These elements are best displayed on the front of knitted work by either purling or putting the design element to the front of the work and then knitting the next bit of yarn through the back of the stitch. This way all the design elements will easily pop to the front of the finished work.

Always make a swatch of combined yarns before committing to project.

Materials:

(estimated minimum yardage)

18yds chunky dimensional yarn (cuffs)

40yds thick n thin (glove body)

Needle size: 

US9, US10 DPNs depending on your gauge

Stitch notes:

M1 - my increase preference for thumb gussets is to lift the left leg from the stitch below the last knit stitch (right needle) and place it on my left needle so it looks like a new knit stitch. Another way to say this is that I insert my left needle from the front to the back into the left leg of the stitch below the last stitch I knit (right needle). Then I knit it.

Bind Off Purlwise - I like to purl the first stitch, make a loop on my right needle, purl the next stitch.  Pass the first stitch and new loop over this last stitch made on the right needle.  *Make a loop, purl the next stitch, pass the first stitch and new loop over the last stitch.* Continue with ** until you reach the end. Join in the round. Cut yarn leaving a 6” tail.

Begin:

With chunky dimensional yarn, cast on 18 stitches using your preferred method. Divide stitches evenly onto 3 DPNs and join in the round. 

Cuff: Knit several K1, P1 rounds with knit stitches being knit through the back loop. Make the cuff as deep as you like.

Body: Change yarn to thick n thin yarn and knit 4 rounds. Begin increasing for the thumb gusset as follows: K3, M1, knit until the last 3 stitches, M1, K3. Knit next round. Repeat these two rounds until you have 10 stitches on #1 and #3 DPN. Continue knitting 4 or 5 rounds or until your work reaches just above the base of your thumb (you will need to try on your work in progress). Knit next round until the last 4 stitches, place last 4 stitches onto new DPN. Place additional 4 stitches from #1 DPN onto new DPN. There are now 8 stitches on new DPN for your thumb. Using I-cord method knit at least 2 rounds on thumb then bind off purlwise (see Bind Off Purlwise notes above). A ladder of unknit stitches will have formed on the thumb. Thread the 6” tail on to a tapestry needle and weave the tail down to the base of the thumb. WIth a crochet hook loop the tail and catch one bar/rung at a time to close this gap. The thumb base will be tidied up when you weave in the ends. Continue knitting the body of the glove until you reach the desired length (try on your work in progress). Bind off purlwise.

Weave in your ends taking special attention at the thumb/body intersection.

Mixing It Up

I LOVE mixing up different yarn weights &; colors into one project. This keeps my attention on an individual project. Side note; I do like to have more than one project in process at any given time. And each project typically has more than one yarn involved. Judge, if you must.

A stash of yarn of any size is a red flag to me that I have bought to much yarn and it is time to make something. Since moving to Maryland I have purchased 11 skeins of fingering weight hand dyed yarns. I really made my selections with abandon. I love the colors in each skein.



To scale my yarn inventory down I decided I needed a pull- over vest to be my next project. Laying my hand dyed yarns out into a well lighted area I was able to choose color ways that worked well together. I selected four skeins for this particular project with the intention of making stripes. Two skeins are semi solid and two skeins are multi colored. I know that large swaths of any of these yarns will create pools of colors hence the decision to stripe.

As you can see I still unwittingly achieved pools of color. But I don't see them as too annoying because still there are breaks in the color via the semi solid stripes.

What I had not paid attention to was the gauge or the design of each skein. Each yarn, though labelled as fingering/sock weight, has different twist and ply. The tendency today is to purchase one skein of hand dyed  yarn with the intention of making a one skein project initially. Then to use the remaining yardage in a scrappy project like a scrappy pair of socks or a scrappy blanket. I love these scrappy style projects. But fingering weight socks, though an enjoyable make, I'm finding no longer fit into my wardrobe. I need thicker, denser socks.

From left to right is Kim Dyes Yarn Rustic Sock which is a plied yarn, DragonFly Fibers Pixie which is a single ply yarn and Copper Corgi Savannah Sock which is a tightly twisted plied yarn (the semi solid yellow and semi solid red).

Knitting Disclaimer - I am a continental knitter with loose stitches. The Rustic Sock provides excellent stitch definition, the Pixie has a good twist for a single and blossoms more once it is knit, the Savannah Sock has finer twisted plies making it a thinner yarn and has nice stitch definition … could have used a smaller needle size with this last yarn. I am using US3, 24" circulars for this entire project.

The vest pattern

 Initially, I had no pattern to follow; I was happy to knit in stockinette until it came to shaping the 'v' neck and arm holes. I found Veste Everst pattern after an introduction to Veronik Avery's designs (thank you Fruity Knitting Podcast). I like her design reasoning.  Though the pattern calls for  a heavier weight yarn and is actually a cabled project I like the basic design instructions.

I will post the finished project on Ravelry in the near future. The back has begun and I am playing a bit of yarn chicken with one of the skeins. We'll see what kind of magic can be used to work that out.