Thursday, February 12, 2009

Fixglove


This may look like a pair, but it's not.

The one on the right was finished three weeks ago, the one on the left, last night. As I was knitting these gloves, I learned a few things -- too late for the first glove, but just in the nick of time for the second. Uncharacteristically, I thought I could make some alterations that could make these gloves a little more wearable. Yes -- I actually made changes to a pattern. Two of them were pretty easy, but the other was a little more complicated -- and I figured it out all by myself!

Below is a diagram of what I did:


Starting at the bottom with the green line, I stopped the base of the thumb four rows earlier than the pattern called for. Things were looking just a bit too webby on the right glove, and I thought that this might help. It did! I don't think this is a pattern problem, just a personal anatomy issue. Apparently, I'm an ape.

The red line shows that I started the pinkie finger a few rows before the other fingers. I put the pinkie stitches on a holder and cast on in the gap between the fingers, much like the thumb. Look at your hand -- your pinkie probably starts lower on your hand than the other fingers. You'd think I would have a basic grasp of my own anatomy, but Staci actually pointed this out to me. Some patterns take this into account, others don't. I did misread the pattern (forgot I was going in the opposite direction on the opposite hand), and I cast on 4 instead of 2 stitches between the fingers, but I knit them together when the time came to work that finger. No problems.

The blue line indicates that I knit the fingers just a few rows longer. Again, webbing issues on the first glove. I thought they fit perfectly, but when someone with shorter fingers than I tried them on and noted they were too short (thanks, Stephi) I realized that I'd been deluding myself. This time I paid more attention and added a few rows. A few times I had to tink back after finishing the finger because it was too long or too short, but I think I got each one just right.

Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm hoping I can get the right glove back into shape quickly. I'll have to frog back to the middle of the thumb. I have enough yarn -- it might just be easier to start over.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Good job! And none of my fingers start in the same place, although my pinkie is definitely the lowest. My index and ring fingers are almost the same, and my middle finger is higher. And I wonder if I have short thumbs, because that pair of mittens I just finished have lots of extra thumb room!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice! They really look great - and I'm sure its nice to wear a pair of custom fitted gloves. But wow - that really sounds like a lot of work - I'll stick with mittens!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, as long as you don't have to frog all but the middle finger we are all good! Steven, you are the brightest boy knitter in all of knitter-land.

    ReplyDelete
  4. At lest you're figuring all this out with DK weight and not sock yarn! You should probably write the corrections out as your own personal, perfectly-fitting glove recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't even know what to say. I'm so proud of you! You da MAN!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I applaud you for all your fixins!
    And I felt really bad about pointing the length out when I realized you were going to fix it. lol

    But they look great!! :D

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.