Knitting Gloves is written by Dr Angharad Thomas. I am writing again, after a break earlier this year.
I live in the UK and I am a designer, researcher and maker. I have been an academic in Art and Design, among many other things, but now I divide my time between volunteering in the collection of the Knitting & Crochet Guild of the UK, and working on ‘the Glove Project’ of which this blog is part.
I have been knitting gloves to ‘traditional’ patterns from the UK or inspired by these since the Spring of 2011. There’s supposed to be a page for each completed pair, but there isn’t as I need to sort out the posts. Not all the posts are about knitting gloves, although most of them are.
I started by knitting ‘traditional’ gloves and then moved on to working out my own designs as I am a knitwear designer by profession.
Now I’m knitting my own designs which take inspiration from these.
I can knit a pair in about two weeks but it depends what else I’m doing. I have completed over twenty pairs of various designs, with lots more ideas in store.
When I’m not doing those things, I go walking in Yorkshire and the Spanish and French Pyrenees; garden, rather randomly; and see friends and family as much as possible; and try to learn Spanish. None of these are on my blog though.
Do tell me what you’re doing – I love to know when people are reading me!
Some of my gloves. These were used as part of a poster for a conference at Falmouth University in the summer of 2014.
Knitting gloves 
Hi Angharad – wow that’s quite an expedition! good luck with it all
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Thanks Louise. it’s certainly more work than it would appear for such relatively small pieces of work and I am nearly a month behind my planned schedule!
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Such beautiful work!! I’ve made a few pairs of stranded gloves and it’s not easy to get the stitches so even… usually something looks a little wonky but your gloves look flawless.
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Gosh, thank you so much. I am getting better the more I do!
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Have just discovered your website and am inspired by your beautiful knitting to cast on a glove this afternoon! Will try the Mary Allen pattern.
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Amazing knitting. I am in awe.
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Lovely gloves Angharad, I’ll definitely be showing the Mrs for some knitting inspiration! Nice to see what you’re up to since Design Studies & Heritage Design at Salford too! Ian (grad from DS waaaay back in 2002)
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I enjoyed seeing your gloves at the Eisteddfod in Denbigh. Please send me an email to oriel.wrecsam@wrexham.gov.uk so that we can be in contact.
Best wishes
S
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Thx for yr interest. Am away in France but shld be home today French rail permitting. Iit is not just now. More later. A
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Wonderful gloves. I wanted to say how lovely it was to see you on The Fabric of Britain. You haven’t changed a bit since the early 80s when I came to your brilliant knitting class at Swarthmore in Leeds which inspired me so much
– I’m still knitting and still have all the notes you gave us. Thank you so much.
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Sarah, how great to hear from you! I have such good memories of the Swarthmore knitting class and all the amazing things that people made! And as you can see I am very involved knitting-wise these days!
Angharad
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Angharad, I have been knitting a few of the Sanquhar gloves as a pleasant project and changing some features of how they are made to suit me, eg. making the thumb gusset in salt and pepper instead of squares, and making the fingers by a modern glove method.
What I want to know is now that I have too many for my own use am I am allowed to sell these gloves online as Sanquhar gloves? Can I sell without calling them Sanquhar gloves?
I do not want to get into trouble or upset anyone by selling my own take on these gloves.
What if I designed my own pattern for the squares?
I have searched the internet and not found any answers so I hope you can help.
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Barbara, I’m not sure about this either. I don’t sell my gloves but there was someone who did so on Etsy and charged over £100 for them. I don’t think they are there now. I’m not sure of the status of the Sanquhar pattern name, and it’s a muddy area once you start to make your own modifications.
The Arts centre in Sanquhar itself sells hand knitted Sanquhar gloves and uses the Sanquhar pattern for machine knitting so you could try asking the manager there. She is called Anne Foley and can be reached through the web site. The other source of expertise might be the Sanquhar knitting group on Ravelry, do you know of that?
I’m sorry not to be of more use but it really is not my area of expertise although I do have a feeling that if you know from a pattern then the resulting item is not your design to sell – in fact, many modern patterns say that on them. But the issue of modifications is more difficult.
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Angharad, thank you for that very informative reply. I will get in touch with Anne Foley and I will let you know what her reply is. At first glance, my gloves look like the real thing which might be a problem.
Thank you again.
Barbara.
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Yes I’ll be interested to know what you find out or decide about selling them. Angharad
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So far I have emailed a guild local to Sanquhar, and today tried to find Anne Foley. I came across a site ISSUU.com/atheairts/doc/newsletter. I have written to them as it came up when I searched on Anne’s name. I love the little teddies shown kitted out in Sanquhar patterned jumpers. The scarf is rather nice as well. I have asked if I can subscribe to their newsletter.
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I missed out an s at the end of ‘doc’ in the link to site, it should be ISSUU.com/atheairts/docs/newsletter
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The teddies wearing Sanquhar jumpers are very cute, I agree. I think they (at the arts centre, might be in the process of registering the Sanquhar name and pattern, if that will be possible.
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I have not had replies to either of the emails I sent. However, while browsing the Knitting Traditions which featured the Sanquhar glove patterns, , I saw the editorial page said all patterns in the magazine are copyrighted by Interweave and only for personal use, so that is the answer. It also means the magazine has the copyright to gloves designed by Angharad.
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I have now got a reply from Scottish Women’s Rural Institutes which says that even with the minor changes I have made to Sanquhar glove pattern, if similar in design, to sell them would be breach of their copyright.
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Yes I think you are confirming what I thought was the case about knitting patterns and selling the product of them. There is a further issue with the Sanquhar pattern, as I think there has over the years about the use of Shetland as a descriptor.
The contract I signed with Interweave is pretty all encompassing on their side, including that they have rights to re-use the pattern in the future.
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At least now if somebody else asks a similar question they can find the answer here.
Thank you for all your help Angharad.
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You are very welcome. I think that you have found out more than me actually!
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Can you check that I have been added to your newsletter list as everything here looks so interesting.
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Hi there,
My name is Anuj Agarwal. I’m Founder of Feedspot.
I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Knitting gloves has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top Knitting blogs on the web.
http://blog.feedspot.com/2016/02/09/top-knitting-blogs/
I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of top Knitting blogs on the internet and I’m honoured to have you as part of this!
Best,
Anuj
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How exciting – I’m number 101 on the list! So I need to move up there fast!! How do I do that?
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Hi there. Keep posting quality content useful for the knitting community. You might be placed higher in our next list.
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Thanks. I will aim to blog more often too.
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Pingback: Fair Isle from the KCG collection - Ann Kingstone
Hello Angharad,
I hope you are well, I would love to get in touch with you about a potential project.
Please send me an email on jskelton44@gmail.com and I can explain further.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Kindest regards,
John Alexander Skelton
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Thanks for getting in touch, I’ve sent an email so you can reply to that.
Angharad
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Hello Angharad,
I have enrolled on your course at Farfield Mill on Sunday 15 October and am unsure about what needles to bring. Could you please give me some guidance.
Thank you,
Delia
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Delia, thank you so much for enrolling. It will be a good idea to bring 4 mm dpns or circulars which ever you prefer to knit with. If you have interchangeable needles or a set then bring them so that you can adjust if necessary. There will be some really lovely DK pure wool for participants to buy which I find is knitting up well on 4mm or 3.75s.
Hope that helps?
Angharad
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Hello.
One of my Ancestors was A Terrible Knitter of Dent.
My Mother would love a pair of gloves in the ‘Terrible Knitters’ Style.
We saw your Exhibition in Farfield Mill.
Please do you sell your gloves?
If so – how would I get hold of a pair in the ‘Terrible Knitters ‘ style?
Thank you.
Jane.
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Thanks for getting in touch. I’m so pleased you saw my exhibition at Farfield Mill. How amazing to have a ‘terrible knitter’ in the family – do you know any more than that? Who they were and what they knitted?
I don’t usually sell my gloves as they would cost hundreds of pounds, even at minimum wage, but I can point you in the direction of some patterns, if you are a knitter at all?
Best wishes
Angharad
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Hello Angharad,
I am a friend of Ann Bettys who told me about your knitting when she saw me working on a pair of Sanquar pattern gloves, would it be possible to ask you some questions?
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Yes of course.
Did you see my answers about the yarn?
It seems as though there’s a bit of a crisis going on with the Regia 3 ply which is no longer available.
Would you prefer to email – I’m angharadthomasATcooptel.net if so
Angharad
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I have just bought A Knitters Guide to gloves, partly because I have become very interested in the dales knitting. I did notice that there was a suggestion that the pattern for the Mary Allen Gloves was available from Knitting Traditions 2011. I had tried to purchase this before Christmas this year but found that when you got to check out the page failed. This is still the case. Do you know of any other way that it is possible to get hold of the pattern.
Thanks
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Alison, I found a link for the Knitting Traditions 2011 that has the Mary Allen pattern in it.
https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/knitting-traditions-winter-2011-digital-edition
Cost is £12 for digital version.
BUT there is a Dales pattern in my book – for a similar yarn and a similar size glove.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for your interest, and all the best with the glove knitting
Angharad
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