Fashion: Yarn Style

Adventures in Glove Knitting

 

This year at Stitches West, I took a wonderful class from Marly Bird on how to knit gloves. The course was geared for beginners, and was very clearly explained and illustrated, step by step. By the end of the three hour class, I had knitted almost an entire glove!

 

I hadn’t expected to produce an actual garment out of the class, so I brought scrap yarn with me. Luckily, it was a 200 yard ball of Plymouth Encore, as I quickly knitted up a matching glove just in time for our trip to chilly Colorado. I wore the gloves every day, and found them quite warm and comfortable!

 

 

I highly recommend Marly as a glove knitting teacher, I thought she was excellent. You will find the link to her Craftsy class by clicking on her name, above. The glove pattern Marly used in the beginners class I took was called, My First Pair of Gloves, and this approach used an afterthought thumb. This means that as you knit up the palm, you put your thumb stitches on waste yarn and then don’t pick up those stitches again until you have finished knitting the other fingers. It was a relatively painless approach for a novice to this type of knitting, and I enjoyed it.

 

However, I discovered the pitfall of knitting gloves with an afterthought thumb when my husband, inspired by my efforts, asked me to make him a pair for our Colorado trip. I knitted his gloves like a maniac, trying to get them done in a week and ended up finishing the fingers on the airplane! I used Woolfolk Far [http://www.woolfolkyarn.com/] , the chainette version of the ultrafine merino that has been taking the knitting world by storm.

 

 

Although I insisted that my husband try each finger of the glove on for fit as I knitted, the fingers still ended up too short. Why? I realized later it must have been because of the afterthought thumb. In future, if I knit the fingers first, I will compensate for the awkwardness of fitting them on the hand without space for the thumb by really pushing the gloves down on the web between the fingers. I didn’t do this when I tried the gloves on my husband’s hand and I believe that is why I received the erroneous impression that they were long enough.  It wasn’t a complete fail, though. My husband wore the super soft black gloves the whole week we spent in Colorado and now they are MINE!

 

 

I plan to cast on another pair for my husband soon. I will use the afterthought thumb again because in this case, I know I just have to make the fingers one inch longer than I did last time. But if anyone knows of a good glove pattern in worsted weight yarn that uses a thumb gusset, please let me know! I searched on ravelry and mostly found patterns in fingering or sport weight, and I just don’t have the skill yet to knit in the round and shape fingers with such fine yarn. But there are so many gorgeous glove patterns in those weights that I want to knit someday! Here are my favorites:

 

The Openwork Gloves by Jennie Atkinson:

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/openwork-gloves

 

The Helena Gloves by Kristen Jancuk

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/helena-gloves

 

The Houndstooth Mitts by Amy Keefer:

 

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/14-houndstooth-mitts

 

and Hetty’s Sunday Cuffs by Danielle Sorensen:

 

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hettys-sunday-cuffs

 

So far, I have been using two small circular needles to knit my gloves but I wonder if anyone feels double pointed ones are a big advantage? Readers, if you have knitted gloves before, what is your preference?

 

 

Ravishing Patterns & Designers from Stitches West!

 

 

All has been quiet here as I have been waiting for a spate of ill health to improve. Now, along with the sunny spring weather, my energy has come back again! Before now, I spent my quiet moments reflecting on the wonderful new patterns and designers I had met at Stitches West in February. Although the yarn market at Stitches is a big draw, this year I found opportunities to discover fabulous knitwear designs and to even try on the garments to evaluate which ones suited me best!

 

 

Katy is an exceptionally talented accessory designer who had four of her recent designs on display in the Stitches Marketplace. Above, she is holding her Lucienne Scarf, knitted in Anzula Ava. In person, the scarf has a gorgeous sheen, and the slip stitch sections in between the cables give the scarf a stunning, distinctive look.

 

Another marvelous design Katy introduced me to is her Danica Cowl knitted in Anzula Squishy. I thought that piece would be a perfect way to add a pop of avocado green to an outfit, which conveniently is one of the "in" colors for spring and summer.

 

This February was the second time I have been fortunate to meet up with Katy at Stitches, and she brought me over to meet designer Elizabeth Doherty of Blue Bee Studio:

 

 

Elizabeth, pictured above, had the clever idea of bringing knitted samples of many of her recent designs, including those from her recent book, Top Down: Reimagining Set-in Sleeve Design. She and I are both wearing samples from the book above. I really enjoyed trying on the different styles, especially Underwood:

 

 

However, the Doherty design that most captured my fancy was Tenaya , a design that was published in Twist Collective.

 

 

Adding to the fun experience of trying on her garments, Elizabeth and her staff showered Katy and myself with encouragement and feedback as we tried on different styles, making observations about changes to color, length and fit that would make the designs even more flattering on us.

 

Emma from Coco Knits

 

Another day, my friend Charlotte and I visited Julie Weisenberg’s Coco Knits booth which featured samples of the designs in Julie’s latest book, Cocoknits Sweater Workshop.  Charlotte and I had a delightful time trying on the samples, and both of us lost our hearts to an as-yet unpublished tunic vest named Gabrielle, knitted in Shibui twig and pebble yarns combined:

 

 

 

I am watching like a hawk and as soon as I see the published pattern on ravelry I will add the link to my blog! Another favorite design of mine was the fitted jacket, Verena, knitted using Habu mohair and paper yarns combined:

 

 

 I left Stitches with wonderful memories as well as autographed copies of both Dohery’s and Weisenberg’s new books. Both books feature top-down and other non-traditional construction techniques that will challenge me to develop new skills. However, the first pattern I want to get my hands on is that Gabrielle vest. Among the procession of women in different shapes and sizes that tried it on, that vest looked great on them all!!