Lockdown 3: Day 42: The completed red Hoosiefield Gloves

The gloves are now completed, they look great, they match the Katie’s Kep and very importantly they fit extremely well. (See previous post for background to this). 

 I used Hazel Tindall’s original pattern as published in Shetland Wool Week journal in Annual 2019 and now published for purchase on LoveKnitting for those unfortunate enough not to have the journal. 

Michael prefers a plain rib and so I knitted a 1x1 rib on the knitting machine and  joined this into the  round  before knitting the gloves. I used 3 dons needles and used a knitting belt, swapping to my shortest needles for the fingers. I hold one yarn in the right hand and one in the left when doing fair isle. As the larger size of the glove pattern was too wide I removed stitches from round the hand. This took some working out as I did not want to disrupt the pattern and the thumb needed to remain in the correct position. In all I had 32 sets across the back of the  hand and 36 across the palm when all the thumb stitches were being knitted. I was concerned about such an uneven distribution but it is not obvious in the finished gloves when on.

I also juggled with stitches at the start of the pattern and the end for the colour blocks as I needed the thumb to start following a black block and so this determined how the colour blocks were placed. 

Yarn used was Jamieson’s Spindrift as this is what I had enough of from previous projects. 

I kept black as the background throughout and this and the predominant Crimson red are yarns left over from my woven skirt (see the slide show on the home page of my website for for more details, https://jemcreatingtextiles.wordpress.com/ ) 

Contrast Colours from the bottom up are: 

Bottom block : Ginger

Second block row : Crimson

Bottom of main pattern : Crimson

Second colour of main pattern : Ginger

3 centre rows : Madder 

......then the colours above are reversed. 

Fingers : Crimson and Black 

As noted in the previous post  I used Elizabeth Johnston’s 2020 wool week video on Perfect Fingers to aid with picking up stitches between fingers. I also like the inside of the gloves to look as good as the outside so take trouble in weaving in ends. 

After washing I rolled the gloves in a towel and when they had reached the just damp stage put them on the Glove  Boards made by Emily Poleson’s Dad and bought at Ollaberry Hall in Shetland. 

Finished gloves off the boards 

..and being worn. It is snowy today and very cold. 

I am very pleased with them and so is Michael. 

My next substantial hand knitting project is a colourful jacket - Paisley Jacket in Green modified from a Sidsel Hoivik kit. Initially I have made changes to the width of the lower sleeve, the positioning of the centre pattern to suit my eye and to one of the colours.