Gram’s Mohair Birthday Gloves

My Gram, who taught me to knit, had a birthday. I wanted to knit her something soft that she could wear. A pair of fingerless gloves with a Drop Stitch Cable and mohair yarn was the results. The details are in this post.

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Yarn: Fingering weight

• Knit Picks Palette in color, Almond
• Knit Picks Aloft in color, Oat

Pattern:  This is my own design based upon what I learned designing and knitting previous pairs of fingerless gloves.

Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm) double pointed needles

What I Enjoyed:

• Tubular Bind Off
• Drop Stitch Cable along back of glove
• Longer ribbing for cuffs so they extend slightly down the arm and could cover the hand yet be folded down for use of fingers

What Bothered Me:

• Unmastered Tubular Cast On
• Knitting surgery affecting appearance

My Gram, the same special grandmother who taught me to knit, had a birthday. I wanted to knit her something special she could wear.

Materials

I wanted to use a fingering weight. I picked two Knit Picks yarns, Palette and Aloft. There are a few reasons I picked these Knit Picks yarns:

• I had the beige color, Almond, of Palette in my stash already.
• I wanted to incorporate mohair yarn for a super soft glove, and Aloft was the perfect.

Construction Details

I followed the typical fingerless glove construction.

I worked the cuff before knitting for 1 inch to the thumb gusset. I shaped the thumb gusset with M1R and M1L increases. After shaping the thumb gusset, I placed the thumb stitches on waste yarn before knitting the rest of the hand including the cuff. For the thumb, I put the stitches from the waste yarn back on my needle, picked up 4 more stitches, and worked the thumb until the correct length. The end of the thumb is crowned with a cuff, too.

Knit 1, purl 1 ribbing was used for all the cuffs at the wrist, top of the hand, and top of the thumb. The smaller needle, US 1 (2.25 mm), was used for the ribbing.

The rest of the glove was knit in stockinette stitch besides an added Drop Cable Stitch along the back of each glove. The larger needle, US 2 (2.75 mm), was used for the remaining glove.

Like previous fingerless gloves I knit, I made the thumb and hand cuffs longer allowing the glove to cover almost the entire hand when unfolded for extra warmth when needed. I love this design feature!

Modifications

Since I created this design and pattern specifically for my Gram, it’s hard to say I made any modifications. I didn’t deviate from any pattern as I was creating one.

Other Notes

I discovered the Drop Stitch Cable from the We Are Knitters blog. What thrilled me about this stitch is that it’s added after knitting. I knit the hand of the glove in stockinette to where I wanted the cable to end (right before the ribbing at the top of the hand). Then, I ripped back to where I wanted the cable to begin. I’ve worked Afterthought heels but never cables till this project.

Also, the Drop Stitch Cable has a “softer” appearance which paired well with the fluffy mohair fabric.

It was difficult to work the Drop Stitch Cable in mohair as the stitches didn’t want to be pulled apart from their neighbors. My next project with this cable stitch will likely use a tighter, smoother fiber.

Finally, I made a mistake in 1 glove, picking up from the first waste yarn row instead of the first working yarn row, in the Tubular Cast On. Ending in some knitting surgery, I cut back, picked up the stitches, worked the ribbing until the cuff was the correct length, and worked a Tubular Bind Off for the cast on edge to correct it.

The fit should be perfect for Gram’s hands.

Conclusion

I learned much in this project!

From the Drop Stitch Cable and type of yarns that work well for it to the fact that I need to work on my Tubular Cast Ons, this was an educating knit.

If you would like to comment below, have you heard of the Drop Stitch Cable? If you’ve tried it, what project did you use it in?