Do you remember that, back in July, our Sit & Stitch group went up to the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm? You can read about it here, if you'd like. I came home with a cake of beautiful 100% cinnamon coloured fingering weight alpaca and John had suggested that I knit myself a pair of gloves with it. I did start them at the time, but frogged them because I'd made some kind of mistake (at this point, I don't remember what I did, but I seem to recall that it had something to do with not reading the pattern carefully before starting).
Well, this week I cast on for the gloves once more and I'm loving the process! You can see in the picture below that I'm making good progress. In actuality, the little finger is now complete and I'm working up to the ring finger. This is glove #1.
The pattern is Nancy Bush's "Vanalinn Gloves", from Victorian Lace Today. To reiterate, the yarn is 100% baby alpaca from the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm. There's a link to the farm in the right sidebar. The gloves are knit on 2.0 mm (US 0) double pointed needles. That, in itself, sounds a little intimidating, but the gloves are knitting up quickly and, as you can see, this one fits very nicely.
The pattern is well written, making it easy to follow. The stitch pattern is easily memorized; by the time I'd gotten through one pattern repeat, I no longer needed the chart. You can't see it in these pictures, but the palm is knit in stocking stitch and there is a ribbed cuff, ensuring that the gloves will hug the wrist. I made one small modification in that I made the cuff longer than the 24 rows the pattern calls for. I prefer my gloves and mittens with a longer cuff that will stay inside a jacket sleeve. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a chill on my wrists. All in all, I'm really enjoying the process of knitting these gloves (yes, I know, this is just the first one!) and I'm looking forward to wearing them when the weather gets colder.
Incidentally, there's no news yet on how I did at the fair. We'll be going some time this weekend; I'm just not sure when.
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The gloves are lovely.
ReplyDeleteAnd congratulations on your success at the Fair. :)
They look great, Ev! I can just imagine how warm and toasty they will be :)
ReplyDeleteLovely gloves! Must be very soft to the skin! I, too, love long cuffs, my wrists even hurt when they get too cold. This morning I was wearing a pair of my wristwarmers – for the first time in the season. Fall must be here. It gets quite cool during the nights (like 8 or 9 °C) while the days still feel summery with up to 28°C but there is this first hint of fall in the air.
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