Alpaca gloves

Alpaca gloves

This is based on the gloves I made for myself.

Pattern

Cuff

CO 44 stitches of brown yarn, in cable on three #1 dpns; work in round in k1, p1 rib for 9 rounds. Change to off-white yarn, knit one round. Switch to #2 dpns and work (same pattern) for another 9 rounds. Bring the bottom (cast-on) edge of the knitting up inside the piece; switch to variegated yarn and join bottom edge to the current round with a 3-needle join (in rib).

Work one full round in St st, rearranging stitches and placing markers on needles as follows:

Heel of palm

All rounds except those marked will be one full round of St st.

R1, 3, 5: kif&b stitch immediately before marker on N2, and immediately after marker on N3. After R5, remove markers on N2 and N3.

R5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 17, 21: kif&b stitch immediately before marker on N1, and immediately after marker on N4. After R21, remove markers on N1 and N4.

There should now be 64 sts on the needles. Continue in St st until R24.

Thumb

Rearrange sts by moving all but 11 sts from N1 to N2, and all but 11 sts from N4 to N3. ("Side seams" should remain unaffected.) These 22 sts will form the thumb; ignore the rest (possibly transfer them to a stitch holder if you need the extra needle!) In the course of the first round of the thumb, use an extra needle to take the last few sts of N1 and the first few of N4, as round knitting on on just 2 dpns is hard and leaves loose "seams".

R1, 4, 6: k1, ssk, k around to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.

R2, 3, 5: k all sts.

There should now be 16 sts. Continue in St st until thumb is about a half inch from being done (probably about R19 or so). Then:

R19: (k1, k2tog, k2, ssk, k1) twice.

R20: k12.

Rearrange onto two needles and close using a Kitchener graft.

Ball of palm

If you used a stitch holder, move the sts back onto what used to be needles N2 and N3. Carefully, with the right (thumb) end of N2, pick up two stitches from the thumb. Do likewise with the left end of N3. By making these four stitches part of both the thumb and the palm, we close the hole that would otherwise form here! There should now be 46 sts on the needles.

Leaving enough of a tail to weave in later, start knitting on the thumb end of N2. (You could start at the other end, but then the join would be very obvious.) In the course of the first round, you'll probably want to redistribute onto three or four needles for comfortable round knitting, but make sure not to lose the "side seam" at what is now the pinky-finger side of the glove.

R1: k20, k2tog, k1 to pinky side seam; k1, ssk, k20.

Knit in St st for 6½ more rounds to the pinky side seam; rounds will now start on this side.

Fingers

The fingers will be basically like the thumb, but thinner, longer, and without shaping.

From the side-seam closest to the pinky, the finger will start with 7 sts of the first needle, then skip across to the last 7 sts of the last needle. The remaining stitches are ignored or put on holders while this finger is completed.

To complete the finger, continue until about half inch before the fingertip. From the base of the finger, this will be approx:

For the fingertip, (k1, k2tog, k1, ssk, k1) twice, knit one round, and then graft it closed with a Kitchener stitch.

After the finger is done, put the remaining stitches back on needles, pick up two stitches from each side of the base of the finger, and possibly knit some full rounds before starting the next finger (after the pinky, 5 rounds, and after the middle finger, 1 round).

Finishing

Turn the glove inside out and weave in the ends---other than that, you're done!

Materials

4-5 US-1 dpns

6 US-2 dpns or 5 US-2 dpns and a stitch holder

tapestry needle

Yarn

Same as in the matching hat. The off-white and brown yarns were used in fairly minimal quantities, but the variegated used up about one 50g ball.

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Don Blaheta / web@blahedo.org