Why Do I Even Bother? Learning to Knit Fingerless Gloves

I finished my gloves.

They were supposed to be knit flat. They were supposed to force me to get better at seaming. Yeah… that lasted about six rows into the rib before I decided absolutely not. So instead, I knit the rib flat, then joined in the round and planned to seam only the rib section.

The yarn I am using is a local hand-dyed wool from Yarns by HPF. This is the second time I have used their hand-dyed yarn. The first was for my Honey Cowl, and once again, I am completely in love with both the color and the base.

When I finished the first glove, it looked nice, but it was a little big. The ribbing was not as defined as I wanted it to be, and you can see that clearly in the photo. I was okay with it, but I was not in love.

That is when I realized the original pattern approach just was not going to work for me. I love knitting in the round, and I knit much faster that way. So I scrapped the original idea and came up with my own simple glove recipe.

Here is how I made my gloves.

I cast on forty-three stitches using US 6 (4.0 mm) needles and worked a one-by-one rib for two inches. I then switched to US 7 (4.5 mm) needles and knit in the round for eight rows.

Next, I started the gusset increases using stitch markers. Once I had fourteen stitches between the markers, I placed those stitches onto waste yarn for the thumb. I then continued knitting the hand for five rows and finished it with a crochet bind-off.

For the thumb, I picked up the stitches and knit around for three or four rows, I honestly cannot remember exactly how many, then finished it off with a single crochet bind-off.

This project uses approximately 79 yards of yarn total.

The yarn is Yarns by HPF Domestic Alpaca. It is a worsted weight, one hundred percent alpaca yarn, and it was purchased at Yarns by HPF on September 13, 2013. The colorway is a mix of browns, greens, yellow, and blue, and it is absolutely beautiful.

This was my first pair of knitted fingerless gloves, and even though I had to frog and rethink my approach, I learned a lot in the process. Sometimes things do not go the way you expect, but that does not mean they are not worth finishing.

You can see my project details and photos here:
https://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarning4asmile/first-fingerless-knit-gloves

And the full write-up of how I made my gloves can be found here:
https://yarning4asmile.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-do-i-even-bother.html

In the end, I am really happy with how these turned out, and I would absolutely make another pair using this same method.