New Pattern: Nouveau gloves

It can be pretty agonizing sometimes, having new designs in the works and holding off talking about them until the final reveal, but then when I do get to reveal them it feels so, so satisfying. The pattern I have to show you this week is one of two that I’ve been working on for Spring 2010 for Tanis Fiber Arts. Tanis will have this pattern in hard copy debut at her booth at Toronto’s Knitter’s Frolic this coming May. These are the ‘Nouveau’ gloves (available here on Ravelry, and here on Patternfish):

I tell you, I was just going to do “a nice little glove pattern” for Tanis. Just something that would use a single skein of her DK weight. Famous last words, right? Well, it does only take a single skein of the Yellow Label DK, but it is certainly one or two steps up from simple. It took me a few months to really nail this down, partly because I had thought at first this was going to be a colour-work pattern. As it turned out, once my brain switched to twisted cables, all I needed was a sketch and a bit of Art Nouveau and Art Deco inspiration, and I was off and running.

What can I say about these gloves? Well, I love them, that’s the first thing. The second thing I can say is that, while I was carrying around the first finished glove in my bag (as one does), I passed it around to everyone who was around to try it on, and it fit everyone. Several people tried it on and said “oooh…” I really like the way these fit. The skeleton of the twisted stitch pattern and twisted stitch ribbing is a “k1tbl, p2” combination, which means that the reverse side of a lot of purl stitches are on the inside of the glove, and it feels very smooth. The effect of the twisted stitches means that it slips on nice and snugly, but also has a good amount of stretch. These are what the gloves look like off of my hand, by way of example:

The pattern is fully charted from cuff all the way through the hand, and is worked in the round. The most challenging part for most people is likely going to be the fingers (I try to walk you through this in the pattern instructions as much as possible though – I’m here for you), as glove fingers can be a bit fiddly at the best of times when you’re not also trying to continue a twisted stitch motif from the hands all the way through to the fingertips.

I hope this pattern will be a fun and exciting challenge. Because it is worked on DK weight and not fingering weight, you’ll find it goes a bit more quickly than a comparably challenging pair of socks, and you’ll get to practice your twisted stitches and cables on a relatively small canvas. (Um. I might have twisted stitches and cables coming up on a larger canvas some time in the future. Just saying. ::whistles::)

The pattern instructions are worked at a gauge of 26 sts/4 inches over 3.25mm needles, decreasing one needle size at the cuff. I am confident that this provides a good fit for most women’s hands, from about 7.0-8.5 inches in circumference. For a more snug fit, decrease all needles by one size. For a larger/looser fit, increase by one size.

I’m glad these babies are out in the world now. If you knit them I hope you will enjoy the process and the result! And as always, please contact me (crazy.knitting.lady[at]gmail.com) if you have pattern-related questions that I can help with.

Happy Wednesday!