April's "Look Ma No fingers! " Fingerless gloves.

As a nurse who works in the home care industry, I often find myself working late at night, with a window open to help vent the heat put out by machinery such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators, and such.  I sometimes will wear a long sleeve shirt under my scrubs, but some days it is just my arms that are cold.  I can't wear gloves and work, so I thought I would try the fingerless gloves I am seeing all over the place.  I came up with this easy knit pattern for a simple pair of the fingerless glove.  It works up super fast.  While they could be made with solid color yarn, such as the one pictured here, you can also work up lovely ones with self patterning yarn.  I worked up a set with Caron's Simply Soft yarn in Oceana  and it came out just awesome.  Give these a try and feel free to give me some feedback.  Look for more free designs in the future!

APRIL'S LOOK MA NO FINGERS FINGERLESS GLOVES!!

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Yarn:  Any brand worsted weight will work**.  For an extra soft glove try Caron's Simply Soft. It is less spendy than sock weight or baby yarn but just as soft , with a great variety of pretty solid and variegated colors.  Caron Simply Soft Ocean was used  here. 

Needles:  Four Size 8 double pointed needles or size to fit a gauge of 5-6 stitches to the inch.  There should be some stretch to the finished project so before you decide the size is too small be sure to knit about 2 inches before you pull it on your arm to test it.

Final measurement should fit the average sized wrist  about 7 inches round.  The length will be up to you.  I prefer my gloves to be on the long side so I go to 10-12 inches so I can pull them up over my elbows.  For gloves that I am going to use while while wearing long sleeves, such as a coat, I prefer them to be 6 inches.  This is a good length for driving gloves.

THE KNITTING:

1) Cast on 36 stitches.  I like to cast these all on to one needle.  Any cast on method is fine. 

2) Knit a row to divide your stitches on to three needles .  With the first needle Knit 12 stitches.  Continue with the second needle  kniting 12 stitches.  With the third needle, knit 12-add a stitch marker between the 11th and 12th stitches.

3) Knit one stitch to join for working in the round.  -if you have never worked in the round before , it is realy quite easy to join the round.  All you do is using the third needle, and holding the feeding yarn tightly, simply knit the first stitch on the first needle.  When you pull the stitch of the previous row off, pull  your free tail tightly. This should result in creating the round with no hole to hide.

4)  Round One:  Using the  fourth needle, purl one, knit one to the stitch marker.  Slide the marker to the knitting needle, and knit one.  This is the end of round one.   Continue the purl one, knit one pattern for 5 more rows to create a ribbed cuff.  This will help the glove stay on more securely.

5)  Round 7  After moving the stitch marker to the knitting needle on round 6, knit the last stitch of round 6.  now and until the glove is  as long as you want it simply knit each row.  This is a pretty brainless pattern--easy to do when watching TV for example, since all you do is knt knit knit!  Be sure to count the stitches every few rows to make sure you have not dropped any.  

6) When the glove is as long as you would like it, HERE YOU WILL PUT HOW TO KNIT THE THUMB DIVIDER. and finish off. Weave in the ends.   (See my blog "HELPFUL KNITTING TRICKS I HAVE LEARNED ' for hints on dealing with yarn tails, how to prevent holes in your work when knitting in the round and much much more!

7) Now take your yarn and 4 needles and knit a second glove.

8)  Blocking:  I do not block my gloves, but you can simply by gently hand washing, then drying on a piece of cardboard or Styrofoam pinning the the top and bottom flat. 

9) SLIDE YOUR GLOVES ON AND GET READY FOR THE COMPLIMENTS!

STAY TUNED FOR A FELTED GLOVE PATTERN AS SOON AS I WORK OUT THE KINKS!  H

HAPPY KNITTING!!!