Thursday, November 29, 2012

My Sebastian Gloves Are Knitting Along

The Sebastian Glove Knitalong is winding down over on the Webs blog. I'm a bit behind Dena but wanted to share my progress anyway. Here are my gloves after the cabling is completed with the reverse stockinette stitch ridge added. There were decreases made in the ridge to account for the extra stitches needed to compensate for the cable.


The fingers are the trickiest part of the project. I remember the first pair of gloves I made. I was designing them for a CEY pattern back in the early 90's. I had never knit a pair of gloves so I dove in by beginning with a Fair Isle pattern for a pair of gloves.


I am still wearing those gloves almost 20 years later even if they are more relegated to "work glove status - i.e. bringing in firewod for the furnace." I have re-knit the fingers many times as that is where they always wear out. They are in need of some more repair again!


Here's how I start the fingers on the Sebastian Gloves. First I put all the stitches onto a scrap of yarn.


Then I count out the stitches needed for each finger and put them on their own little scrap of yarn. Using different yarn colors makes it easier to keep track of which stitches to pick up. The hard part is now done and I can pick up a "finger" whenever I have some free time to knit it.

From left to right - pinky on pink, ring finger in yellow, middle finger in blue and pointer finger in green.


To knit the fingers, I make believe I am knitting a thumb on a mitten. It makes the chore a little easier. Once I get into the rhythm of the double pointed needles, they go quickly. I use short double pointed needles to make the knitting less cumbersome. Not all yarn stores stock short double pointed needles so when I see them, I grab them.

If you are gifting the gloves, I suggest including a reeling of the finger color yarn. Then the recipient can re-knit the fingers if they wear (or give back to you to re-knit!). 

I'm teaching a class at Webs tonight and the students should be ready for the fingers. I'll try to take some photos to share with you of the colors they chose and their progress too. Check out many of the finished projects here on the Sebastian Gloves Ravelry page. Beautiful job everyone!

You can order the PDF Pattern for the Sebastian Gloves for $6.00 by clicking the button below. It will be immediately sent to your in-box.


3 comments:

Frances said...

All of your knitting tips are helpful, and your colorways are full of joy!

I really liked the tip about knitting a couple of straight back and forth rows before joining the ends for continuing to knit in a round. This method definitely leads to a neater begining edging.

Many thanks.

Turtle said...

your work gloves still are gorgeous!

{Bellamere Cottage} said...

Oh what beautiful projects... I'm going to learn to knit..........someday.. :-) I've tried before with little success... but I'm going to give it another whirl.. Your projects are inspiring.

Blessings,
Spencer

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