Knitting Gloves? Well Yes, that is one of the things I resolved to do in 2012. I love gloves. I have small hands with long fingers and new gloves never fit me as they usually come in one size fits all or med. & large only. And vintage gloves are hard to find. I figure if I learn to knit my own I can make the hands and wrists small enough, the fingers long enough, and choose the styles and colors I really want.
Red Fuzzy Mittens All Knit Up on Two Needles - Flat Technique - Ready to be Sewn Up & Finished
I really am learning to d it. It is a challenge! Fortunately I already know the basics of knitting. I began with a pair of red mittens – so I could learn to understand the basic structure and how to shape thumb gussets before attempting to do 5 fingers. I knit a pair of two needle mittens, on size 6 needles, in the red yarn, now all knit up and ready to be sewn together using mattress stitch so that they can be worn. Hopefully I get that done within the next couple of days. Blocking them and sewing them up all around is all that is left to do. I may also add a decoration of some sort to make them not so basic.
Next, I am knitting a pair of basic 5 finger gloves in violet Shetland wool. My purpose being to learn how to do the thumb and fingers perfectly on a plain pair of basic gloves before I take on making lace or decorative stitch fancy gloves.
Violet Shetland Wool Hank Knitted Gloves In Progress
Here they are, so far! I have done the ribbing for the cuffs, making them four inches long on size #4US needles, then transferred to size #6US needles for the section of the glove up to where the thumb gusset will begin. Next comes the thumb gusset, then the thumb, after that, the little finger, then a bit more knitting around on the hand to bring it up to the base of the other fingers, then each individual finger – each one has to be knitted using four double pointed needles in the round in a tiny circle to form a cylinder. The silver needles are my working set, the red needles are just being used as holders for the live stitches on the other resting glove. I am doing each section on one glove, trying it on to be sure of the fit, then moving over to the second glove so I do the same thing on it, then switching back to the first glove again to continue with the next step. It is very fiddly! Especially since it is being done on a set of 5 double pointed needles in the round instead of two needles, flat, as I did the red mittens above.
Gloves are definitely harder to make than two needle mittens. I highly recommend learning on a mitten first, then graduating to a harder glove with double pointed needles and five individually knitted fingers. I am using Jamieson Shetland DK weight wool here at a gauge of 6 sts per inch. This is a rather large gauge for gloves, but I wanted to be able to make them relatively quickly as my practice set, before moving into a more challenging tiny gauge fine yarn – which is my ultimate intention. I want to “graduate” to knitting fine gloves in refined styles in beautiful colors ~ using many of the interesting fingering weight sock yarns which are very well suited to gloves as well!
I love the yarns! I can hardly wait! Discipline, discipline! I have 2 skeins of lovely yarn picked out, on hold, for my next 2 pairs of gloves, but I won’t buy them until I get these finished. They will be my reward for getting through these first two projects!
I am off to do more work on these today, so will keep you posted with my progress. I am determined to finish them this week! I have to stay on schedule here to accomplish my goals! My first goal is to finish knitting the red mittens and the purple gloves shown above during this January. Then to move forward throughout the remainder of the year by knitting a pair of gloves every month. Each pair must be increasingly more difficult to knit so that I make technical progress. I feel that I will be quite a good glove knitter by next New Years 2013 if I manage to accomplish this. Plus, I will have a good collection of hand made gloves made up from practicing!
After I finish these two pairs I will be looking for glove patterns or a book of gloves to make! I want to make authentic vintage styles, of course! This is only the beginning!
