Oak Grove Fingerless Gloves

These are done! They were a quick knit. The oak leaf motif is charted and not appropriate for work knitting, but these still didn’t take long.

Now let’s do the pros and cons.

Pro: I love the way the fingers are constructed. I’ve only knit one other pair of gloves (Sebastian), so I don’t have a broad basis of comparison… but I think these work better. When you work the middle fingers, you knit the held stitches, pick up lots between this finger and the previous finger, and cast on some new ones between this finger and the next finger. On the next round, you decrease a lot of those (one third!), which eliminates the holes that inevitably develop at the base of the fingers. I didn’t have nearly as much “darning” type repair work to do when I was done with these. I will continue to use this technique, whether or not the pattern directs me to.

I borrowed Julie’s 2.75” dpns to work the fingers. She had the perfect set – those 5” Brittany ones. They are very strong (no danger of snapping!) and the best length for working glove fingers.

Con: The fit is not very tailored on these. You can tell in the photo above that I tried to curve my hand just so to show off the pattern to best effect. But when I bend it the other way, elephant skin folds emerge! You can see these from lots of angles:

Yet, the stockinette fabric on the palm side pulls some at the thumb:This may or may not be my fault. The pattern says to work even until work measures 1.25” from the thumb opening. I decided to go further (about 2”) because it didn’t look like there was enough fabric to cover my hand before my fingers split off from the palm. I’m not sure how making that section shorter would have affected the final fit, but it may have.

The finished gloves weigh 55 grams. I have 45 grams of yarn remaining. I wonder if I could squeeze out another pair in the fingerless mitt version…? I might be able to manage it if I shortened the ribbing by nearly half (10 rounds instead of 18?) and the stem by a couple of rounds… and made the top a little shorter, too. MAYBE…? Should I risk it? I have 20% less yarn for the second pair. Maybe that’s pushing things too far. Hmm.

In other news, I resolved to spin more by simply spinning 15 minutes a day. My kids can testify that I made this public promise BEFORE the Yarn Harlot proclaimed she was spinning her brains out last week. I’m going for a lifestyle change approach rather than the binge. :) I made it almost every day last week, only missing the ones in which I had an evening event. And guess what? The bobbin is getting fuller! Go figure.