Quick, Fingerless, and Fashionable

It has been getting quite nippy here these past few weeks and as any good knitter will tell you, when the weather starts turning colder, a knitter's pace increases.

I recently got bitten by the "fingerless glove" knitting bug and so I started out with a very simple pattern and found some rustic alpaca that I had in my stash to knit with.  They took only a few days to knit up and boy, are they warm.

Once I finished those, I started looking through the patterns up on Ravelry and discovered that there are lots of fingerless glove patterns available.  I also found this fingerless glove pattern at the local Knitters' Day Out gathering in our area and whipped them up in no time.  They match a cowl that I just completed.

Since fingerless gloves don't take a lot of yarn to knit up (typically 150 - 220 yards of yarn), I rummaged through my stash and found this lovely Sanguine Gryphon yarn that I thought would make a lovely pair to go with my black winter coat.  This pattern is called "Fronds."

Once I had finished those, I still had half a skein left so I decided to work up another pair of fingerless gloves.  This time I chose the "Jasmine" pattern.  Again, it took two days to finish up and that was just knitting a bit here and there.

The latest pattern that I worked from is called "Mitt Envy" and I used two strands of Araucania Trauco yarn held together to knit them up.  Since the Trauco yarn is a laceweight yarn, this gave me a fingering weight yarn to knit with.  The resulting fabric is quite warm and tightly knit.

Why fingerless gloves?  Well, they are the perfect project to use up yarn in your stash.  They don't take long to knit up.  They are great to wear on cold days when it really isn't cold enough for mittens or full-fledged gloves but you still would like something to take the chill off your hands.  I love to wear my fingerless mitts when I'm driving in the morning.  Otherwise I find I'm warming my hands in my armpits when I'm stopped at the stoplights.  Hey, it was also so chilly in our church sanctuary this past Sunday that I slipped a pair on while I sat in the pew.  I warmed up in no time.

Fingerless gloves aren't that hard to knit, especially if you are using the Magic Loop method and they make nice gifts without having to invest in the purchase of a lot of yarn.  They are also practical.  For example, I can sit here and type with fingerless mitts on.....something I can't do if I were wearing gloves or mittens.  My sister-in-law and my daughter work in labs where it can get pretty cold.  These would be perfect for them. They could still work on the computers or take notes without having to take off their mitts.

With all the neat patterns available, I think I'm going to be doing plenty more of these.  However, for now, I'm working on an octopus toy for my granddaughter.  I'm on the first of 8 legs and each will be wearing a little sock.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished toy for you when it's done.