Typepad was down last night, so I couldn’t tell all of you that I’ve finished my gloves–every one of those two dozen ends are woven in.

Now, I don’t mind weaving in yarn ends that much. It’s not my favorite thing, but it’s not usually that difficult and it leaves things being all neat and tidy, and I like that. So–no biggie. This though? Now I realize why I’ve never made gloves before!

It wasn’t so much the weaving in the ends, really, as the grafting of the stitches between the fingers. On this particular pattern, there are two stitches left waiting on each side of each finger when you join them all together to knit the glove. Since the stitches were already on spare yarn as the fingers waited for me to knit all 10 of them, I just left them there, being careful not to catch the waste yarn in the stitches as I picked up the fingers. That much worked fine–when it was time to pull out the waste yarn, it slid free easily.

No, the hard part was finding those two, waiting stitches on each finger. It seems that, as I knitted the glove, the holding-yarn allowed some of the stitches to technically drop–to slide out of their last row–but with the waste yarn as kind of an anchor . . . but the space between fingers is obviously small, there were at least three yarn ends flying around at each one, the glove fingers regularly falling in the way, and since I had one hand inside the glove while doing this grafting which made it harder for my left hand to help hold everything still while the needle in my right hand searched for the stitch, and of course, weaving-in is done on the inside and I find it harder to spot where one stitch begins and ends on the purl side of the fabric . . . Basically, you could say I found the process frustrating!

What would have made it easier? If I had realized up front how difficult it was going to be to salvage those 32 stitches (four at each finger-intersection), I would not have left them on the waste yarn. I would have put them on something solid, like a safety pin so it would have been easier to locate them. Then I would also have had only one yarn-end at each intersection, rather than three, which would have made visibility easier.

What did I like about making gloves? I really enjoyed the I-cord finger idea–there’s something delicious about using a really clever, new technique for something that’s been done the same way for centuries. I have nothing against DPNS (though I admit I prefer Magic Loop when I can use it), but I-cord for the entire finger . . . it’s ingenious. I love ingenious things. I also really enjoyed using my handspun yarn, finally, for something! I was happy with the way it felt as I worked it, happy with the spinning which, if not perfectly consistent, was still effective and made a nice yarn. Besides, I’ve never made gloves before–firsts are fun.

Am I happy with the finished product? Yes and no. It’s not the pattern’s fault at all, or the yarn, but they’re not perfect specimens. The joins where the fingers were picked up to form the palm aren’t as tight as they could be–that’s my own fault. I opted for plain-jane gloves, no extra touches at the cuff since by then I was anxious to get them done. The gauge is 5 stitches per inch, so they’re not a tight-knit . . . and that means lots of little holes between the yarn loops. (Some holes are a little bigger than others because the yarn wasn’t perfectly consistent, but like I said, I’m so happy to have used my handspun, I’m not complaining about that!)

I am going to try lining them with silk glove liners–I mentioned that idea when I joined the KAL–but I’m not sure if that’s going to work. I knit these gloves to fit my hands (definitely a bonus to handknit gloves), but (1) glove liners would be standard proportions and so the finger lengths might not fit into mine. My little finger, for example, is on the short side compared to my other fingers–would I be able to cram a glove liner in there and still have room for my actual finger? Because (2) they’re actually such a close fit to my hands, they’re a little snug. Not uncomfortably tight, but I should have left a little more ease–not something I thought about ahead of time. But also not leaving room for anything extra in there other than my hands.

Ultimately, while these are adequate, and reasonably pretty to look at, I think they may fail at a glove’s main purpose–keeping the hands warm. Better than no glove at all, I’m sure, but nowhere near warm enough for taking Chappy out walking in 20-degree weather. I’ll block them and see what happens. Glad to have them, though. Thanks for the knit-along, Nona!

• Tags: Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Full-Fingered Fashion //