‘Sweet pea’ fingerless gloves 2023

I first designed a pattern for these, many years ago. It was prior to 2014 which when we moved back to Norfolk, so possibly 2006! Then they were called the Alchemilla fingerless gloves as they were to match a handbag that I knitted. Sadly I no longer have the handbag, it is one of the few bags I have sold. I still have the design work and the gloves though! 

Alchemilla gloves

They are excellent when I am doing photography in cooler or even very cold conditions! 

I made the next pair (left in image below) sometime in 2016 when I spun the yarn, from Shetland fleece and naturally dyed it to knit the first wool week hat, the Swook hat by Hazel Tindall. I called it my Skaw hat as I matched the colours to seaweed in a photo I took at Skaw beach on an earlier visit to the most Northerly beach in Unst, or in fact  the UK. I wear these a lot and it a usual day of somebody, usually a stranger,  doesn’t have a conversation with me about them. It’s nice that they spark a knitting/ spinning/ dyeing conversation and I have introduced several to Shetland Wool Week through these gloves. 

I had so much dyed Shetland wool left the year I knitted the meadowsweet jumper and the hat and the notebook cover that I knitted another pair in those colours! 

….and now in 2023 I have knitted another pair using the colours in the yoke of my Shetland Wool Week jumper yoke. There is one slight variation from the yoke - I used a stronger coloured pink in the centre of the yoked jumper motifs but thought there was enough pink showing in these fingerless gloves to use the wool that I dyed and did not use in the yoke. Also this year it is the first time I have used all the colours in sequence and arranged them so that the colours run in sequence across my left hand, outer to thumb side, then across my right hand thumb to little finger with palms down.

The clips show where the stitching for the thumb slot will go 

There is an invisible graft in the picture. (I hope it is invisible) 

I have learnt the graph I used from studying videos and articles from Joni Coniglio who does, in my mind, ann excelled 2 sided lace knitting graft. It took me time and many trials to ‘get’ this but more than worth it. I have described this I detail I previous posts, such as http://imagejem.blogspot.com/2021/11/grafting-2-sided-lace.html

This shows the trial of the graft

Preparing  for the graft 

Showing the foundation rows in waste yarn 

 Graft complete

Removing the waste yarn from the left 

Each time I have knit them, since the first there has been a modification, or improvement in my mind. Perhaps now the pattern is static and perhaps I might publish it! 

My aim at first, and remains, was to run the stripes down the hand. This lengthens rather than widens my (to me) broad hands. 

You can read about the jumper and the natural dyeing using cochineal and indigo in the post of 8 Oct 2023