Saturday, March 08, 2008

Step by Step Gloves

Hi Knitters,
I had no idea that a lot of knitters are intimidated by gloves. I guess it is all of the fingers. I want to show you how simple gloves really are if you just break it down into steps. I know that cable pattern is pretty complicated but you could always do stockinette stitch instead.

You start by knitting a tube just like the one above. I always knit things like this in the round on my double-pointed needles. The blue yarn is the scrap yarn to hold the stitches for the fingers and the thumb hole. I love the way Robin Melanson did this thumb hole by knitting with scrap yarn where the thumb should be placed.
Then on the top of the tube you place each finger of active stitches on scrap yarn. You take, for example, 5 stitches from the back of the hand and 5 stitches from the palm of the hand to create a 10 stitch finger.
Here you can see the 4 finger holes all set to knit.
You just go finger by finger placing the stitches on your double-pointed needles and knitting as long as fits over your fingers. It is easy to custom size gloves because you can try them on as you go.
Now I have the fingers finished and really those work up in a jiffy because the number of stitches is so small. So I placed the thumb hole stitches on my dpns and then I will remove the scrap yarn. Next I redistribute the stitches on 3 dpns and knit up the thumb.
Here they are! I love how these turned out. I talked about these gloves extensively here. They are lovely gloves and they fit and feel like a dream. Now I won't embarrass the kids since I have a finished pair.
I took this shot while I was photographing the gloves. My daughter is so funny. She basically never takes off her stripey stocking hat (the pattern is in itty-bitty hats) I made her about 3 or more years ago. She adores this hat and even wears it to bed on many a night. A lot of times she can't find her hat in the morning and it ends up being in her rumpled bed. I keep wanting to replace that felted pom-pom but I don't even ask her about it. I know she will say no. It is hat love. Big time.

Now go make some gloves!
best, susie