Widows Weeds Fingerless Gloves

After my dad died earlier this year, my mum asked me to knit a pair of black fingerless gloves for her. I decided on something unspectacular with an easy lace pattern, so that it would be suitable of early spring and not too flashy.

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Materials

• about 25 to 30 grams of fingering weight yarn
• 3mm dpns
• 3 stitch markers
• scrap yarn or yarn holder 
• tapestry needle to weave in ends

Lace pattern 

This lace pattern works in the round with any multiple of 8 stitches:

Round 1: p1, k7 

Round 2: p1, k1, k2tog, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k1

Round 3: p1, k7 

Round 4: p1, k7 

Round 5: p1, k1, yo, ssk, k1, yo, ssk, k1, 

Round 6: p1, k7 

Instructions

CO48 (or any other muliple of 8) and join in round and place a stitch marker to mark the end of the round

Knit 6 rows of p1, k3-ribbing

Then start the lace pattern

Round 1: * p1, k7, repeat from *

Round 2: * p1, k1, k2tog, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k1, repeat from *

Round 3: * p1, k7, repeat from * 

Round 4: * p1, k7, repeat from * 

Round 5: * p1, k1, yo, ssk, k1, yo, ssk, k1, repeat from * 

Round 6: * p1, k7,  repeat from * 

and repeat rounds 1 to 6 until you start the thumb gusset. In the last round place two stitch markers around one purl channel

Thumb gusset

While continuing the lace pattern for the rest of the round knit the thumb gusset as follows

Round 1: [lace pattern up to marker] into the purl stitch: k1 yo k1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 2: [lace pattern up to marker] p1 k1 p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 3: [lace pattern up to marker] p1 k1 p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 4: [lace pattern up to marker] p1, into the knit stitch: k1 yo k1, p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 5: [lace pattern up to marker] p1, k to 1 before marker, p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 6: [lace pattern up to marker] p1, k to 1 before marker, p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 7: [lace pattern up to marker] p1, mk1r, k to 2 before marker, mk1l, p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 8: [lace pattern up to marker] p1, k to 1 before marker, p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Round 9: [lace pattern up to marker] p1, k to 1 before marker, p1 [marker, lace pattern to end]

Repeat the last three rounds until the thumb hole is big enough for you (for me this was the case at 17 sts between the markers

In the next round, knit lace pattern up to marker, place the stitches between the markers on a stitch marker or some scrap yarn, CO1 (with backwards loop CO) and continue the lace pattern to the end of round.

Continue the lace patter for about 2 pattern repeats, and finish with 5 rounds of p1, k3-ribbing, BO in pattern.

Thumb

Remove thumb stitches from stitch holder, and pick up about 5 stitches from the gap (between last thumb stitch and top) and the underside of the backwards loop CO. 

(At this point I had 22 sts on my needles).

Knit stockinette stitch in rounds, knitting decreases in the first two rounds where the stitches from stitch holder meet the newly picked up stitches to avoid gaps. Continue with a few more stockinette stitch rounds. End with a few rows of p1, k2-ribbing. BO in patten.

(The ribbing you can do at the top of the thumb depends on the number of stitches that you aim for - I aimed for a multiple of 3 (22 sts minus twice two decreases = 22-2x2 = 18), that's why I did a p1k2-ribbing. If you finish on a multiple of 4, you can do a p1k3-ribbing to exactly match the ribbing at the top of the mitts.)

Make two.