First FO

The kniting's been complete for a while, but it wasn't until last week that I wove in ends, did some sewing, and finally completed this project.  My brother's hands will be toasty, especially these days that the weather has taken a dreary turn towards rain.

This is the third man-hand project I've knitted recently, having completed my first pair of "glittens" for a friend and a pair of gloves for my Supernova before last year's end.

At first I tried to follow a pattern, but then decided it would be easier to make things up as I went.  Six iterations later I've had lots of practice to refine my pattern, and have a basic recipe for cuff-to-finger hand warmers.

My guys requested a finer fabric, so I used fingering weight yarn (XXL Trekking; ShiBui sock yarn; and here, a washable merino whose name I forget) and my favorite US1 dpns.  Here's what I basically did for the convertible mitts:  Cast on 60 sts and knit in a ribbing pattern for 4 inches, then increased one on each side of the first 2 sts every three rows until there were 20 gusset stitches.  Put those stitches on a piece of scrap yarn, then cast on 2 sts by backward loop, and continued knitting on 60 sts for a half inch before resuming the ribbing pattern.  Cast off after 1.5 inches of ribbing.



To make the finger "cup":  Three rows before the ribbing for the fingers, picked up 30 stitches (first 30 for left hand; last 30 for right hand), then used backward loop to cast on the other 30 sts (to create an opening that woud slip on and off).  Knitted the half with picked-up stitches, ribbed the half with cast-on stitches for 1.5 inches, then knit all stitches until the cuticle of the index finger.  Use the try-as-you-go knitting method, too, because people's finger lengths tend to vary quite a bit.

On the first pair of mitts I did decreases like on a sock toe: K1, KSSP, K to last 3 sts on Needle 2, K2tog, K1; repeat for Needles 3 and 4; K one row; etc.

On this pair I did decreases like on a hat: K 8 sts, K2tog; K one row.  K 7 sts, K2tog; K one row.  K 6 sts, K2tog; K one row.  Etc.  Until 6 sts remain.  Cut yarn leaving a foot-long tail.  I then crocheted an 8-st loop and added a button to  the cuff, to eliminate any flapping finger covers.

I saw the "glittens"  in action when I met up with my friend for dinner a few weeks ago; he told me that his mom was jealous!  DC wears his gloves all the time, and makes it a point to tell people that I made them for him.  I'm excited to give this pair to big bro at dinner tonight.  I think he's gonna like them.