Fun Fingerless Flowery Gloves

Due to several shortages of yarn at the Michael's by my house (I seriously need to find a Joanne's around here) and my recent discovery of ravelry.com, I decided to temporarily set aside my afghans and try a small project from one of the many patterns available online.

I’ve been making a lot of stuff for other people lately, so I made these fingerless gloves for myself. I’ve always wanted a pair of fingerless gloves and I think they are so cute!  Here is a picture that came with the pattern:

And here are some pictures of mine:

Before construction

Finished!  Don't mind the blurriness

I love the way these turned out. I’m so happy with my yarn choice. It has some light springy colors and some dark autumny ones.

This pattern has a lot of firsts for me. The first time I’ve worked with fingering yarn, my first “magic ring”… It’s been a great learning experience! The puff stitches were kind of a pain in the neck. They weren't really that hard to do, but with the thin yarn and the small hook, they just took a while to do correctly. I think they turned out great, though!

The only major problem I had with these gloves as the sizing.  The pattern provides two sizes, but even though I was using a hook that was a size bigger than recommended (I used an E, they suggest a D), my gloves were still too small.  I added extra rows to the top part, which solved the problem temporarily, but when I went to make the cuff, it was huge!  Apparently I have big hands and tiny wrists.  I fixed that problem by frogging the cuff and instead of sc all the way around, I did scdec, sc all around for the first row.  That made the cuff fit perfectly!  I repeated this change with the finishing on the top as well, so it hugs the base of my fingers instead of flapping around in the wind.  Sadly, even though I was trying to work in an even amount of stitches on the cuff, I actually worked in an odd number, so the seam is pretty apparent:

But I had already ripped it out once, and the seam is on the inside of the wrist, so I left it and made the other glove identical.  I think they look fine, but I'll keep this mistake in mind if I ever make them again.  Also, next time I'll add a few rows to the "inside" section of the top part, between the flowers and the thumb holes.  When I crocheted that originally, I was still following the pattern exactly, unaware that I needed the gloves even bigger than the pattern.  As a result, the flowers are ever so slightly off-center.  Not very noticeable unless you're a perfectionist like me, so it's fine for this pair, but I'll have to remember for next time.

All in all, the pattern (found here) cost me $5 and the fingering yarn (Loops and Threads Luxury Sock, color Balloons) cost me $5, so $10 total spent on this project.  Plus the cost of some darning needles to stitch the sides and weave in the edges, because the tapestry needles I already have were way too big for this thin yarn.  It only took me less than one skein of yarn to complete, and I bought two.  But the colors are so pretty, I'm sure I'll love to use the extras on the next project that uses fingering yarn.  It won't last long!

I worked on these for maybe three afternoons, total.  I love them.  They'll be a great addition to my winter wardrobe!

Working on:

Still the 2 afghans for my grandmothers.  Sooooo close to being done.  Once Michael's finally gets more yarn, it'll only be a matter of days until I'm finished.  Expect a post soon.

Still my cousin's baby blanket.  I'm about 60% done, but since the work was going so quickly, it's been set aside for a little while.  The baby's not due until January.  But I have been thinking about it a lot and I've come up with a great idea for an applique for it.  It'll be so cute!

Despicable Me minions.  They're using up some extra yarn for me.  I've only got one, and he's only halfway done, but he's cute so far!  They're nice to work on in between these big projects.

Thinking of:

Mittens and socks!  I have the patterns and the supplies for both.  I'm making the mittens to match my work uniform so I can wear them while we're outside waiting for the shuttle.  I don't think I'll be starting them anytime soon, though.  Too many blankets to think about!