The last time I tried to write this pattern I intended to sell it to a
magazine that might give me a whole half page to explain it. It grew
into a tome on knitted-glove theory so huge that I still haven't
finished it. I think I've got an off-site backup of the abandoned
manuscript posted on the Web somewhere.
Ah, here it is:
http://wlweather.net/joybackup/ZGLOVES/MITTSEA1.95
There are eight files in all, numbered 1 through 8.
So I'll assume that you've read the section on pants in Barbara
Walker's _Knitting From the Top_, the chapter "Gloves" in _Mary
Thomas's Knitting Book_, and everything Elizabeth Zimmerman ever
wrote. (I think Schoolhouse Press keeps most of Zimmermann's work in
print, and they had _Knitting from the Top_ the last time I looked.
Dover reprinted "Mary Thomas's Knitting Book", and now has it in
e-book too.
And I'll assume that having absorbed all this data, you can knit a
pair of gloves with no more pre-planning than figuring out how many
stitches to cast on.
Having found the back-up files, these paragraphs from the introduction
are a good summary:
"If I wear mittens in cold weather, I can't work my brake levers --
but if I wear gloves, my hands get so cold that I can't _find_ my
brake levers. Two-fingered mittens let me work my controls and still
keep my hands warm enough to function.
"I made the mittens in two parts: thin embroidery-wool liners
fitted over cycling gloves, and heavier outer mittens. The liners can
be worn alone in cool weather, and they are thin enough that the outer
mittens can be worn alone in intermediate weather. When the weather
gets downright bitter, I replace the cycling gloves with wool gloves;
three layers of springy wool make an adequate substitute for the
padding in my leather gloves."
Work gloves in the usual way until you get to the place where you
split for the fingers, then split into two fingers instead of four.
I like two or three inches of K2 P2 ribbed cuff for the liners, and
for the outer mitten, K2 P2 ribbing starting in the middle of the
forearm and tapered to the wrist. K2 P2 is elastic enough that you
can make the outer cuff to fit over bare skin and still pull it on
over the sleeves of your jersey and sweater and undershirt.
Plain stocking stitch is best for the liners, in a very tight gauge. A
slip-stitch pattern for the outer mittens will turn the wind -- I like
linen stitch.
I sewed a patch of reflective tape on the backs of the outer mittens;
this helps with hand signals and also turns the wind.
From the wrist to the knuckles of the liners, I worked back and forth
in the round so as to put a yellow patch in intarsia on the back.
There is a boundary stitch on each side of the yellow patch.
One boundary stitch is the turning stitch: work it with the yarn in
your hand, turn the work, slip the first stitch (which was the last
stitch of the previous row) and continue with the yarn in your hand,
purling or knitting as appropriate to the side you are on. When you
get back to the turning stitch, you will have the other yarn in your
hand. Work the turning stitch with it, turn, slip, and work back as
before.
The other boundary stitch is the yarn-changing stitch. Each time you
come to it, work it with the yarn in your hand, then drop that yarn
WITHOUT WRAPPING OR TWISTING THE YARNS TOGETHER IN ANY WAY and
continue with the other yarn, which you dropped there the last time
you passed this stitch. When you pick it up, be careful not to loop
it around the yarn that you just dropped.
Each boundary stitch is worked with each yarn in alternation, and each
yarn turns at the boundary and goes back. This sounds as though the
boundary should be checkered -- one expects the two colors to
interdigitate -- and that is the way you would draw it if you graphed
the pattern. In practice, the two colors link together sort of like
warp knitting, and you get a vertical line of black next to a vertical
line of yellow.
The joins are impalpable, and you can't tell the turning seam from the
color-changing seam.
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.