Fingerless Gloves - Part 1

This is a tutorial on the various parts of one Fingerless Gloves Pattern I use.

I'll be working with Patons Kroy - colour Summer Moss.

In Part 1 I'll demonstrate making a Pico hem I use for this pattern. This hem topper can of course be used for socks as well, and likewise, you can substitute your own favourite topper for your fingerless gloves. Part II will demonstrate one method of thumb construction, and Part III will deal with finishing that thumb and the project.

Here I've got my 54 needle cylinder set up at 2:1 (every third needle removed). I place my needle spacing so that I have a pair of needles straddling the red hash mark at three o'clock position - where I begin all knitting. (My camera is positioned about 2 o'clock on the cylinder....not ideal but the only place I can knit and click!)

For this Fingerless Gloves pattern I use a pico hem for the non-finger end: I do a 10 row hem top. You can use as many rows as you prefer, but just remember to do the same number of rows after the pico as you knit before.

Here I've stopped my yarn carrier after 9 and a half rows, so I can begin hanging stitches where the 10th row begins (at the red hash mark).

(Say it with me.... "everything begins and ends at the red hash mark"!)

The first stitch that knit was counterclockwise from the hash mark, so the first stitch me move is the next needle after that.....in other words, the first needle of the pair after the hash mark. With the pic tool, lift the first stitch of each pair, and hang it on the needle containing the second stitch of each pair. When you get as far around the cylinder as you can before hitting the yarn carrier - advance the carrier to the 12 o''clock position, and finish hanging the stitches until you are back to the 3 o''clock red hash mark.

Knit one row around (the pico row) and then knit the same number of rows as you did in the beginning....in this case - 10.

BUT...stop two rows before the end (so in this case, stop at 8 rows - meaning a half turn before you get to 8).

Replace all the missing needles - starting with the first gap AFTER the red hash mark (which is the beginning of row 8)

Replace needles until you get near the yarn carrier, then advance the carrier to 12 o''clock and replace the remaining needles.

Then finish knitting your last two rows, stopping again at 6 o'clock, just before competing row 10.

You can see the first row knit after replacing the needles knits only half a stitch, and then the the second row completes the stitch...so we now have all the needles knitting and we are ready to hang the hem.

With weights removed, carefully pull up the first row of knitting and hang each stitch from row 1 onto the needle that originally completed  it.  So - hand the first stitch on the third needle past the hash mark - ie the first stitch was begun on the first needle after the hash mark, and completed on the first needle of the following pair.

Then continue hanging all the stitches from row one. Remember that in row one you had every third needle missing - so when hanging the hem you are hanging on two stitches THEN SKIPPING ONE NEEDLE.

Here I am half way around and I've advanced my yarn carrier to 12 o'clock so I can complete hanging the hem. The white yarn you see on the right side of the picture is the scrap yarn I knit before starting the glove.

When you advance your yarn carrier while hanging a hem....don''t forget that you took the weights off...so grasp the work from underneath and hold firmly so that there is tension on ALL needles, before advancing or it will all go off the rails!

And here the hem if fully hung and I've begun to knit the first round of the body of my Fingerless Glove.

EXTRA PICO TIP

I like my pico edges to be as ''full'' as possible. To emphasize those little picos... I reduce my tension one row before I do the hang-the-stitches, so I'm hanging those stitches with a looser yarn. I knit the pico round at that same reduced tension, then put the tension back to normal at the beginning of the first row after the pico. My normal tension includes having the yarn full time in the heel spring, so to reduce the tension I just take it out of the heelspring. I don't think you would get the same immediate effect by turning the tension knob as that seems to take a few rows to effect the change.

SUMMARY

set up 54 cylinder 2:1 and knit x rows of scrap, then begin with good yarn

knit 10 rows (reduce tension for 10th row)

hang stitches from first needle of each pair onto 2nd needle of each pair

knit one round (pico round)

(replace tension)

knit 8 rows; replace missing needles

knit 2 rows

hang hem