Knitting fingerless gloves

They look cool, so I thought I would give it a try. I was going to just make up a pattern, so I had no idea how much yarn it would take or what size needles to use.

I found I had 2 skeins of a pinky bulky wool, so I decided to use that. First of all, I love pink, second of all, wool would be warm, and thirdly, two skeins seems like it would be enough. I spent the first several minutes wrapping one skein of yarn into a ball to make it easier to work with. That seemed to go well. I know, I know, that was the easy part, but it started well, right?

So I went through my knitting bag and found I had 3 sizes of double-pointed needles, which I would need to knit this in the round and not have a seam, which sounded like a good idea: 4, 8, and 11. I started with the 8s, which after looking at a few patterns, seemed like a good idea. I cast on 24 stitches (also gleaned from a combination of a few different patterns) and started. The double pointed needles were a little unwieldy and everywhere, so I yanked it out and decided to do it on straight size 9 needles and have a seam. I did 2” in a 3 x 3 rib and 7” (total, including the first 2”) in a stockinette and then saved off 6 stitches on either end of the thumb hole. I saved those stitches off with a piece of scrap yarn and did another 4 inches in stockinette on the remaining stitches for the hand. When I was done, I bound those stitches off. I then went back to the thumb, which I had to do in two part because they were not next to each other (which I would do next time). When I finished the whole thing, I stitched up the sides so I had a complete glove. It looked great. Then, I tried it on. The body of it and the thumb fit great, the fingers/hand, not so much. The thing was so tiny on the finger part, that it smooshed (yes, the technical term) my fingers together and I knew I would never wear it like that.

So much for my fear of doing two the same!

I started over. I decided I needed more stitches and bigger needles. So I cast on 36 stitches with the size 11 double points, thinking I would try it again. They were still unwieldy, but I just went a little slower and did it. After casting all the stitches on to a single needle, I split them among three needles, putting 12 stitches on each of three double pointed needles.

Again, I did 2” of a 3x3 rib and then stockinette to the thumb hole. To the thumb hole, I did 7” total again, including the 2” at the beginning. Then, I put 9 stitches on a stitch holder for the thumb. I knit another 4” in stockinette stitch. Then I cast off the stitches with a size 13 straight needle. I thought that casting off with a slightly larger needle might help with the “too small” issue I had before. After it was done, I went back to the thumb hold and put those 9 stitches back on 2 double pointed needles. I did another 2” and cast it off, also with the slightly larger straight needle. When it was done, it looked great and even though it was almost 11:00 PM, I woke up my husband to make him look at it because I was so proud of myself!

They were perfect for me, but another adult tried them on and they were too big for her, so you might have to play with it a little bit. Since it is stretchy, I might do the next pair with only 30 stitches, instead of 36.

I love it. It looks great and I am so excited to have it done. Now, to make another one so I have a pair – that might be a challenge. But I am so excited to wear them that I might be able to do it pretty quickly! I think I could have done the whole pair with one skein, but with the first one issue, I am close to the end of the ball, so I will make a ball out of the other skein and use that one, since I do not want a knot in the middle of the glove. But I will "frog" the other one and use the yarn for something else. It is so purty!