Thursday 26 April 2012

Lacy Fingerless Mitts


Way back in February the online wool store Deramores created a knit-a-long through Ravelry. They wafted THIS easy lace patterned snood/cowl designed by Jemma Weston using Rowan yarn.

So I gave it a whirl and it knitted up really quick. Then another KAL member created a pattern for lazy lace like hat to match the scarf. Not being a much of an in-the-round knitter I used her instructions as a start and made a straight needle version instead.

After all that I had a cowl and a hat and some yarn left over ... and this is how these simple fingerless mitts came about. SO pattern time...

Materials

Double Knitting yarn approx 25 grams (allow 30g for length for sewing up etc)
4mm and 5mm straight needles
a tapestry needle to sew up the seam
and the 10 row pattern from Deramores (no longer available so edited into this pattern)

Method

Using 4mm needles cast on 36 stitches, and work 19 rows in K1, P1 rib
Change to 5mm needles and Purl 1 row
Work though the 10 row pattern below twice (20 rows), you will end with the purl row 10.
 
Row 1 (RS): K1 *yfwd, K2togtbl, K3, rep from * to end.
Row 2 and every alt row: K1, P to last st, K1.
Row 3: K2, *yfwd, K2togtbl, K3, rep from * to last 4 sts, yfwd, K2togtbl, K2.
Row 5: K3 *yfwd, K2togtbl, K3, rep from * to last 3 sts, yfwd, K2togtbl, K1.
Row 7: K4 *yfwd, K2togtbl, K3, rep from * to last 2 sts, yfwd, K2 togtbl.
Row 9: K5 *yfwd, K2togtbl, K3, rep from * to last st, K1.
Row 10: K1, P to last st, K1.
 
Change to 4mm needles and work a further 10 rows in K1, P1 rib.
Cast off rib wise.


To Make Up

You need to fold in half and sew the seam matching the rib bands and leaving a space for the thumb. I have added the picture below to show where I feel the thumb is comfortable, in this case a joined from the longer rib band up to the 10th row of the pattern (the eyelet hole) and then another row to created a firm seam edge, and from the smaller rib band for only a couple of rows. Neaten yarn ends and ta-da some easy lace fingerless mitts



These lilac ones match the cowl and hat I made. The rib band at the wrist was done using only 15 rib rows rather than the 19 I used making the light yellow pair for the pattern. If you want a quick charity knit these would be perfect using the 15 row band... you could easily get 4 pairs from a 100g ball of cheap acylic DK.

The lace pattern is in my opinion a good introduction into lace knitting for someone who has the basic skills but wants to expand slightly

If you do make any I would love to see and have a pattern page for them HERE on Ravelry you can link to.

Thank you :D