Saturday, August 23, 2014

Claire's Gloves: These Gloves Have a Waist

A lot has happened with my glove since yesterday morning, in spite of a road trip today. (I got most of the thumb shaping figured out and knitted while on the Glenora ferry.) Yesterday, my principal decision was whether to incorporate waist wrist shaping into the glove. I like shaped wrists on ladies' gloves. It keeps them feminine and helps to dress them up so they don't look like work gloves. Why do I refer to it as waist shaping? Because the process is exactly like waist shaping on a sweater: a few decreases to take things in, then a few increases to take things back to where you started. In the case of this glove (I only have one so far to talk about), I chose to make the shaping happen in the side ribs, so that the gansey panel would remain undisturbed. See? The shaping is hidden in the purl sections.


When the cuff was done (twice, because I didn't like the first iteration), I made a big decision about the thumb increases. Rather than knit a traditional gusset, I chose to use Deb Gemmell's method of increasing for a thumb. I like Deb's style of increasing because it makes the base of the thumb very wide. All the thumb stitches are put onto one needle right at the top of the cuff, and the increases happen on the other side of the palm.


I think this is a very cool way to grow the glove and it's really fun to do.
Meanwhile, on the back of the hand, the chevrons were underway.


In the above photo, you can see the thumb stitches on a length of waste yarn, and below, you can see the almost-glove being tried on. Time to separate the fingers!


A few minutes ago, I placed all the fingers, except the index finger, on separate lengths of waste yarn,


and now the index finger is launched. The momentum is building.


By tomorrow at this time, barring some accident, I'll have a glove. They're so much faster to knit than you think they'll be. If only writing up the pattern could be as quick.