Fairisle fingerless mittens

Fairisle fingerless mittens
Originally uploaded by misterhankey

After making Angela Sixian Wu's 'Three Tams' on Ravelry, I wanted to make some matching gloves, as I've just moved from my lovely Quad facing office to a basement office under a bridge. It's really cold, even though it's only September, the University haven't switched the heating on yet. So fingerless gloves will let me type but stop the wind whistling up my sleeves ;). I chose Sublime Angora Merino in 'Feather', a nice off white, and the Silk Garden colourway is 272 - it changes from lilacs and purples to greens and blues, and there's some charcoal in there as well. The hat came out lilac, one glove green and one glove charcoal. The angora adds a nice fuzz, but any DK, worsted or aran yarn would probably work. The Silk Garden is listed as an aran but it's very slubby so it changes from thick to thin frequently. The pattern repeat is 2 stitches, so it would be easy to cast on more stitches to fit your wrists. I do have fairly small wrists and hands. I'm assuming you can knit in the round by whatever means you prefer, so I'm not mentioning how to organise your stitches on your needles. I'll leave that to you. I used the Magic Loop method.

4mm needles
2 stitch markers
Main colour (MC) 25g Sublime Angora Merino
Contrast colour (CC) 25g Noro Silk Garden

Gauge - 4.5 stitches and 6.5 rows per inch of stocking stitch knit in pattern in the round

Cast on 30 stitches (I used a long tail cast on)
K1 P1 rib for 2 rounds in MC
Knit in stocking stitch in main colour until work measures approximately 1.8 inches, or however long you want.



Knit in pattern (see chart) until pattern section measures 5.5 inches. Now start making increases for the thumb opening. It seems to me to make life easier for yourself if you make each of these increases on a row when you're knitting in only one colour, so one of the MC or CC stripes, so prepare by placing the markers just before a single colour round.

K1, place marker, knit to one stitch before the end of the round, place marker, K1.

Increase round: Knit to marker (1 stitch on the first increase round), slip marker, M1L (see here for increases tutorials), knit to marker, slip marker, M1R, knit to end of round (1 stitch on the first increase round).

Knit an increase round every 4-5 rows, continuing in pattern until you have 12 stitches between your markers (or however many you need to fit around your thumb).

On the next round, knit to the second marker, and slip the stitches between the two markers onto a scrap of waste yarn. Now start knitting in MC, and join the round, knitting the hand of your mitten (the thumb stitches are waiting on the scrap yarn and will be dealt with later). Continue in stocking stitch in MC until MC section is approximately 1" or how ever long you like, K1 P1 rib for 2 rounds and bind off in rib.

Place the 12 stitches placed on the scrap yarn earlier back on your needles and knit in MC in stocking stitch for approximately 0.5", K1 P1 rib for 2 rounds and bind off in rib.

Weave in ends and knit another one!

To block, (depending on your yarn choice) immerse in tepid water with a little bit of wool wash or shampoo, rinse, and roll in a towel before pulling into shape and leaving to dry over night. I must confess I could have done more to minimise the jog between rounds in the first place, so they could be tidier. I can never resist blocking after I finish one, which usually ends up with me making the next one a slightly different size. I'm just impatient and like to know what it looks like when finished!