Merino Wool Fingerless Gloves

 

Daughter has been looking for fingerless gloves for some months now, and everything she's found so far has had some deal breaking flaw.  So I offered to make her something if she could find a yarn in my stash that she approved of.  Turns out there was a single ball of this blue, green, purple variegated merino wool that she positively fell in love with at first sight.

It took me a couple of weeks, simply because I've been having a hard time finding project time. But persistence prevailed!  I finished these a couple of days ago to an astonishing amount of excitement over how beautiful they were.  I love making my girl happy!

These are done on a circular needle and if I'd had two balls of yarn I would have knitted them both at the same time. Alas, I had only the one and no idea where it came from.  I would guess a clearance bin somewhere, but honestly, I keep my supplies for years sometimes before I get around to using them.  I can almost always shop my stash and find something I didn't even know I had.

I've used the book Knitting Without Tears as my go to reference book for knitting techniques, so that's where the thumb design comes from.  I have made countless fingerless gloves over the years, so my technique has morphed into something kind of my own, but that book is definitely my origin.  I used it 30 years ago to teach myself how to knit.  Left-handed.  People tell me I knit backwards.  I have no doubt they're right.

The wristband is your standard k2,p2 as is the finishing at the thumb and finger ends.  The palms are a straight knit.  The backs are a popcorn stitch.  Alternating double rows of k2, p2.  It's my favorite knitting stitch, for mysterious reasons of irrational personal preference.

Youngest Son is now clamoring for a pair like his sister's. I can't really blame him.  Hers turned out really nice.

I will, however, have to fix my knitting needles first.  I thought it was cute when I saw my cat Gizmo carrying them around by the nylon part, with the bamboo needles hanging from either side of her mouth.  Needless to say, I took them from her and put them away with my knitting things.  Apparently, not away enough.  She found them overnight.  And chewed them.  

Cats. Like husbands, can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em.

Knitted Fingerless Gloves

So I made fingerless gloves for the whole family for Christmas this year and I'm a-kicking myself for not taking a pic of all the beautiful gloves laid out on the table.  I also made a pair for my husband, which was not a part of the Christmas batch, and sadly, it is the only picture I have.

I've been collecting random (usually single) balls of yarn for years--a yarn store I used to go to had a "yarn orphanage" for the last couple leftover balls of a lot, usually sold for rock bottom clearance prices.  So I went through all this yarn--mostly 100% wools--and found plenty for making fingerless gloves.  Some was more suitable for gloves than others, so I used the cream of the crop to make each pair.  I tried to make each knit pattern a little different so that each pair was unique.  I had about two weeks to make up 5 pairs of gloves. 

I was still hurriedly knitting up the last pair on Christmas eve.  I made a pair for each of the kids (they're all teenagers and adults, but they humor their absolutely ridiculous mom) and stuck a little clue inside each one of them to show whose was whose.  Then I had the kids take turns guessing which gloves belonged to who with the only rule being that that couldn't try to guess their own.  Actually, it was quite fun and I'm wondering what I can make for them all next year and play the same game.