Lucky Warm Fuzzies

These fingerless gloves are made from a scrumptiously soft synthethic yarn, because they are destined for my previous mother-in-law, who lives in California. I’ve tried wearing wool in California, and for me it didn’t work out well at all, so I didn’t want to risk putting this dear lady through that discomfort.

The yarn I used is Oh My! by Plymouth Yarn, a 100% nylon yarn. I used size U.S. 5 dpns rather than the recommended size 10 needles because I wanted a nice tight fabric to keep cold air at bay. I found this yarn to be completely easy and pleasant to knit even on needles so much smaller than recommended. The resulting fabric is so luxurious, it feels like the softest of animal furs. I found myself wanting to stroke the finished gloves endlessly because they are so soft. The fabric also has a nice Isotoner sort of comfy squeeze when you put the gloves on, even though they are not tight or restrictive. I think she is going to love these fingerless gloves for all the reasons I have described here. I hope so.

I used a soft pumpkin color for her, as it is in her color palette. I was back in my local yarn shop this week and noticed quite a few colors for this yarn. Plymouth Yarn Co. is located in Bristol, Pennsylvania and this yarn was made in Italy. I needed two balls as they are each only eighty-two yards; there was a small amount of yarn left over.

I must say this about this yarn … it is very slippery. The first ball fell apart almost immediately when I started working with it. Plus, the balls have a foam insert, no doubt to prevent the mishap I suffered. I had never encountered a foam insert in a ball of yarn before, and ripped it right out of the first ball in protest. I ended up with a tangled mess that took up far too much precious knitting time undoing. My advice is this: a) leave the foam insert inside the ball where it belongs, b) work from the strand of yarn that is wound around the outside of the ball, c) do not allow much of the yarn to slip off and stay off of the ball or you might end up with hard to manage tangles.

Learning from my own mistakes, I had no problems with the second ball of yarn.

I embellised the gloves with vintage buttons from the enormous selection I was given by Winnie of the Buttons and Sweet Dorothy, dear ladies from our church. I like the idea of using buttons to identify left and right gloves for fingerless gloves, since it is hard to discern which is which otherwise. I have noticed from wearing my own fingerless gloves quite a lot that they do tend to start conforming to your hand, and it is better to know which has conformed to the left, and which has conformed to the right hand.

Here is the pattern:

Materials

2 skeins Plymouth Yarn Co.’s “Oh My!” 100% nylon yarn in color #72
Size U.S. 5 dpns
Small piece of waste yarn in contrasting color
Two stitch holders
Large tapestry needle
Two buttons
Small sewing needle
Small amount of thread for sewing buttons in place

Directions

Note: One size fits most, therefore I offer directions for just the one size. These directions make both the right and left-hand gloves.

Cast on 15 stitches on each of three dpns for a total of 45 stitches.

Join, being careful not to twist stitches.

Rounds 1 through 4: Knit.

Round 5: Work in 3×2 ribbing as follows: *K3, P2*; repeat from * to * all the way around.

Repeat Round 5 until piece measures 3 and 3/4″ in length.

Using waste yarn, K7; slip stitches you just knit back onto left needle.

Starting out by re-working the stitches you just worked with waste yarn, continue with repeats of Round 5 for ten more rounds.

Knit one round.

Cast off loosely.

Thumb

Carefully remove waste yarn, exposing “live” stitches … do this one stitch at a time top and bottom and place the “live” stitches on two stitch holders. You will have seven stitches on the bottom row on one stitch holder, and six stitches on the top row on another stitch holder.

Transfer stitches from stitch holders to two dpns.

Join yarn to first stitch on bottom needle; K3, P2, K2.

Using a third dpn, pick up and knit two stitches on side, going up toward second needle. Knit first stitch from the six stitches on the top needle, purl next two stitches from that same needle.

Using a fourth dpn, knit the three remaining stitches from the top needle. Pick up and purl two stitches from side, as you go back down toward the lower needle.

Now you should have seven stitches on the lower (first) needle, and five stitches on the second and third needles.

*First needle: K3, P2, K2.

Second and third needles: K3, P2.* One thumb round is complete.

Repeat from * to * until a total of seven thumb rounds have been worked.

Cast off loosely.

Using the large tapestry needle, secure and weave in yarn tails on inside of glove.

Repeat all of the above to make a second glove.

Count over four ribs from the thumb on each glove to locate the placement for the buttons.

Sew buttons in place about one inch up from the cuff edge, on the fourth rib over from the thumb. Make sure, you’ve counted the ribs in opposite directions so that the thumbs face each other when the buttons are in place, away from each other.

There you go … now go make someone Lucky by giving them the Warm Fuzzies.

Copyright © 2006 J.L. Fleckenstein ALL RIGHTS RESERVED