I think I’ve knitted at least 200 fingers in the last four years and all of a sudden my own fingers are rebelling and saying they don’t want to knit any more just now. Also, I’ve decided I need some nice long fingerless mitts for when I’m volunteering in the Knitting & Crochet Guild Collection as the warehouse is cold all year round and I have some gloves with short fingers but they date from about 1980 and are quite hard to get on and off. So I started these in Rowan Fine Tweed to have something simpler to knit but also to try out some patterns for a pair I’m going to knit for my friend Jan. The patterns that I’m referencing are from one of the oldest pairs I’ve seen, which were being auctioned by Bonham’s in January last year. They are dated 1818 and have a very simple small checkerboard pattern.
The colours are what I am planning for the next pair in my series of fine gloves for family and friends and it was that that made me look at the patterns more closely. Mine are in white (Bell Busk) and turquoise (Monsal dale I think, all the Rowan tweed shade have names of Yorkshire Dales and Peak District villages) and the turquoise will match my down jacket.
So here they are in a really dreadful photo taken on my phone:
No finger mitts
But the other thing I should tell you about them is that the thumb gusset shaping is asymmetrical. I did this first on the herringbone gloves knitted from a Japanese chart and then again in a pair that I adapted from a vintage pattern. The I tried it on my latest 2 pairs and really like it. So here it is again.
These will be written up for a pattern that will be available on the Knitting & Crochet Guild Ravelry page, so look out for them. All the patterns there have been donated by their designers to raise funds for the Guild and the Collection.
Bonham’s mittens: I also took the Bonham’s mittens which I thought I’d finish. Indeed I did finish the hands, but thought I had brought enough of the turquoise wool, forgetting that I had to knit the thumbs, after completing the hands. So here they are with one having the thumb knitted. These will be translated into a Knitting & Crochet Guild pattern on Ravelry as soon as I can write the instructions.
You might realised that the pattern on the Bonham mitts and the gloves is the same – that is a small chequerboard, 2sts x 2 rows of each colour.
Knitting gloves 