No Frills Fingerless Gloves for Machine Knitting

No Frills Fingerless Gloves

Well, here it is...my first step into pattern writing for knitwear. After a considerable amount of angst, I decided on a pattern for fingerless gloves. 

This is a great small project for new machine knitters. Not only will you practice some steps you should know off by heart, there are a few new steps that may help you along the way.

Gloves are one piece with thumb increase. Ribbing can be hand done or latched up. Even though this is a "no frills" pattern, if you wish to do cabling, or an intarsia design, you can easily incorporate it. Just stay between needles 2 and 28, so design is on the back of your hand.

Size: Women about 7-7.5" around palm (size can be adjusted)

Machine: LK150 Mid-gauge 6.5 mm machine

Yarn:  DK yarn, such as Loops & Threads Joy DK, Patons Astra or Stylecraft Special DK. Sample shown was Joy DK colour Purple

Gauge at T4:  22 sts/30 Rows per 10 cm

Let's get knitting!

1.      Pull out 38 needles 20L and 18 R. Leave first two needles as is, then push Every Other Needle back to A (out of work). Knit across 1 row with waste yarn, then pull out needle 19 R. There are two needles together at each end (39 stitches). Add cast on comb and weights.

 2.      T4 (main tension) knit 10 rows waste yarn. Break waste yarn.

 3.      Thread main colour and with T1, knit 3 rows, still on Every Other Needle. Pick up both edge sinker loops and hang them on the second stitch from edge.

 4.      Move all needles out to work. Reset to RC 000 and T3. Knit to RC 016 for cuff.

 5.      There is a space between the rows of EON and the row of every needle. Skip the first two needles and ravel the 3^rd stitch down to the EON row. Inserting latch hook in first row of knitting above waste yarn, pick up the loop between stitches, skip over the yarns of the second and third rows and latch up from row 4 upwards. This produces a better rib edge.

My latched up ribbing

 

6.      Reset to T4. Knit 2 rows. Reset to RC000. Mark the 2nd needle from each end. You will use these same needles throughout the 8 increase rows. On both sides, move 1 stitch outward by one needle, so that the 2nd needle from the end is empty. Pick up the heel of the stitch next to it (3rd needle) and hang it on the empty 2nd needle. Knit across and back. RC002

 7.      On the next row, move 2 stitches outward by one needle, leaving the same marked needle empty. Then pick up the heel of the stitch next to it (3rd needle) and hang it on the empty 2nd needle. Repeat the increase row 8 times total until RC 016 and 55 stitches RC 016

Showing 8 thumb increases

 8.      Cut main yarn. Put all stitches except 8 on carriage side into HOLD. Work these 8 stitches onto scrap yarn and scrap off. Move those 8 needles to Out of Work Position (A)

 9.      Put 8 sts on the opposite side into work and scrap these off as before. Return these needles to OOW position. (39 sts left)

 10.  Take machine out of HOLD. RC 000. COR. Thread up main yarn. Knit 8 rows RC 008 (can be adjusted for hand length). At this point, you can scrap off the remaining 39 stitches and do 6 rows of ribbing by hand.

 11.  To latch up ribbing by machine. Set levers to SLIP. Move out every other stitch to Hold and knit across RC 009. Return SLIP levers to normal. Knit 7 rows at T3. RC 015 COR.

Ribbing for fingertips and thumb knitted by hand

 12.  Using SLIP row as a guide, latch up ribbing from Slip row. Leave two edge stitches as is. Change stitch dial to T9. Knit across to left. RC 016. COL. Bind off using loop through loop bind off.

 13.  Pick up (by hand if preferred) 17 stitches from thumb stitches with 8 from each thumb side and 1 in the centre between the thumbs. Knit 6 rows, with last row at T9 and ending with COL. Latch up ribbing, leaving two edge stitches alone. Bind off using loop through loop bind off. 

14.  Sew up side seam and thumb seam.

Adjusting the Size

To make the gloves larger around the palm and wrist, simply add  2-4 stitches from the cast on. It is shocking how a few stitches will change the size. Keep the number of thumb increases the same (i.e. 8 stitches on each side) 

If the thumb is really too small. In that case add a 9th increase to the thumb (18 rows instead of 16) and increase the cast on by an additional 2 stitches.

To make the wrist cuff longer, simply add rows to the ribbing section at the beginning. Adding 7 rows to the ribbing will add 1" of length.

To make the hand longer, add rows after the thumb increase. Adding 7 rows to the stockinette hand section will add 1" of length.

Comments and photos, please!

I welcome your comments. If you have photos of your finished projects, I would love to see them.

Your Knotty friend, The Knotty Sloth