Daddy's Fingerless Gloves

My fathers birthday always sneaks up quickly after Thanksgiving. Yesterday morning I found myself without a gift for him. I really wanted to make him something that I thought he would be able to use but, I wasn’t sure what exactly that was. So… While shopping at JoAnne’s during their crazy after Thanksgiving sale, I came upon some chunky weight wool blend yarn in a perfect shade of green. I knew instantly that I wanted to make him some fingerless gloves that he can wear under his leather work gloves when he’s working out in his garage in the cold. When I got home I realized that I didn’t have a pattern for fingerless gloves that called for chunky yarn. So, I set about making a pattern for myself.

Below you’ll find the pattern that I used. Please note however that this is my first ever pattern. I wasn’t sure how to word some things, so please let me know if you find any obvious mistakes.

I knit these in the round like I do for socks. Starting at the cuff and working up the wrist. You can make the cuff on these as long or short as you want. These knit up really quickly. I had two pairs done in about 5 hours of knitting. That included me ripping some parts out and adjusting things where needed. Also, these gloves are unisex. This pattern is for personal use only.

Daddy's Fingerless Gloves Pattern

Yarn I used: Lion Brand Wool – Ease Chunky Yarn
80% Acrylic 20% Wool
I made two pairs of gloves with this yarn. And, I still have enough left for another pair.

Needles: Size 8 dpns set of 4
Cuff-

CO 20 sts. Divide stitches as follows on your needles. Needle one 7 sts. Needle two 6 sts. Needle three 7 sts.

(This made a snug fit on my husbands and my hands. So If you have larger wrists you may want to cast on 4 more stitches)

Ribbing: K2 P2 all stitches until cuff reaches desired length

Hand Part-

Needle One- K3 M1 K4

Needle Two – K2 M1 K2 M1 K2

Needlt Three – K3 M1 K4

You should now have 8 stitches on each needle

Knit all sts around for approx. 1”

Then Cont. as follows:

*Round 1: Needle One – K7 M1 K1

Needle Two – K1 M1 K7

Needle Three – K all sts

Round 2: Knit all stitches around*

*Continue these two rounds 3 more times.

Knit 3 more rows even

Thumb Opening -

Row 1 - Needle One – K6 BO5

Needle Two – BO5 K6

Needle Three – K all sts

The next part I’m not quite sure how to wrist… I hope it’s not to confusing.

Using Needle Three knit to last two stitches on Needle One. Using a new needle knit the two stitches on needle one and CO4 sts. Using same needle knit two stitches from needle two. Now using a new needle knit all stitches from needle two and pick up a few from needle three. So that you have all the sts from the thumb area on one needle and the other evenly divided. Now you just knit till desired finger length. Mine is about 1.5” tall. I wanted my dad to be able to wear regular gloves over them.

Finishing –

Loosely CO all stitches and weave in ends.

That’s it!! You’ve now got a pair of warm and comfy fingerless gloves.

First Kool Aid Dying Experience!!

So, early last week I received over 8 lbs of wool roving's from the Sheep Shed. (I'll post about that later) I decided to dye up some of the roving's using Kool Aid. I only had a few colors in the house, so I grabbed two 3 oz. sections of roving's and made two batches using the following colors: First I used Cherry, Black Cherry, and Grape. I was hoping for more of a blended look. You can barely see the difference between Cherry and Black Cherry. But, I still love it and I can't wait to spin it up this week. For the other batch I used, Strawberry, Lemon Lime, and Raspberry Reaction. I love how this one turned out. I really have to get more colors the next time I'm at the supermarket. I've never dyed anything before, so I was kinda shooting in the dark. I used bits and pieces of other tutorials to make these. Here's a sum up of how I did it.

First I got small plastic cups for mixing my colors in. I them covered the counter with a double layer of saran wrap.

I dampened my wool a bit and layed it on the saran wrap.

Then I used a spoon to put the colors where I wanted them.

After I was done with that, I wrapped the wool in the saran wrap and rolled it up and put it into a Tupperware bowl. I did both batches the same way.

When both were done I put both Tupperware in the microwave and microwaved them for one minute.... then turned over the wool so the dye would evenly fall to the other side and nuked for another minute. I had no idea how long it needed to absorb all the dye, so I ended up nuking the stuff for like 10 min. (probably to long) I noticed that the water was clear and all the dye had been absorbed by the wool.

I rinsed it out in the sink and let it dry. And... Ta Da!!!! Pretty roving's!!!

After it was done drying I broke up the roving's into pencil rovings so I have an easier time of spinning it. I'm still not good at doing it with big wads. In all it was lots of fun. I'm going to let my daughters help next time. They will LOVE it.