As promised, here’s the finished picture of E’s fingerless gloves. Aren’t the heart snowflakes adorable?

The yarn colors played havoc with my digital camera, and this was the best I could do. The gray is a dark charcoal and the pink is a hot, hot fuchsia pink.

I vaguely use the pattern at the Glove Pattern Generator, except I make several changes: I knit both mittens at once on double circs. I ignore the part about knitting so many stitches past the beginning of the round before starting the thumb gusset increases. Instead I decide that one of the circular needles represents the palm, and I mark the center of the thumb gusset as being the third stitch in from the right for the right-hand glove, and the third stitch in from the left for the left-hand glove. This appears to work pretty well as far as putting the thumb in the correct position. I never seem to end up with the same number of stitches on the fingers that the pattern suggests. I rib the fingers so that they fit more snugly. I usually use a size smaller needle for both the wrist and finger ribbing.

The snowflake motif is from the book Knitting Fair Isle Mittens & Gloves: 40 Great-Looking Designs by Carol Noble I haven’t actually knit any of the gloves in this book, but it’s a wonderful source of inspiration.

When choosing a motif for the back of a pair of gloves, I first work a gauge swatch and determine how many stitches across the back will be, then I choose a motif that’s either the same number of stitches or a couple of stitches smaller than the back of the glove. The color pattern on the glove palm and the thumb gusset I pretty much make up as I go along.

The yarn for these gloves is Frog Tree Alpaca, colors #57 (pink) and # 0012 (gray). The gray is natural, undyed alpaca color. The gloves were knit on size US#2 and US#3 Inox Gray needles. I used 5″ US#2 Bryflex DPNs for the finger ribbing.

Note to #1 Son’s Friends: In the knitting scene, “UFO” = “Unfinished Object”. I am really not into UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), despite what #1 Son may have told you.

ed. 11/19/05 3:44 pm: On second thought, carrying around alien spaceships in little tote bags would be pretty cool.