Pattern Review: Vogue Knitting’s Fingerless Gloves

Oooooh! Aren’t these just the fanciest things you ever did see? These are the Fingerless Gloves from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2009. Believe it or not, these gloves are made by knitting one large and one small star in the round, then sewing the points together into a shape that fits over one’s arms. I must admit they look a lot more complicated than they actually are – though they are still a bit complex.

I used Madelinetosh Pashmina yarn in Terrarium as a bit of a luxury splurge for myself. I’ve got an unhealthy relationship with Madelinetosh yarns. The color combinations of the handpainted yarns are so gorgeous, but so expensive ;A; Every once in a while I treat myself and buy a skein and sometimes the colors are as gorgeous as the picture and sometimes the store photo is a little misleading and the skeins aren’t so pretty. So I order the yarn again hoping for a better result and the never-ending cycle continues. While the gauge worked up to be exactly what the pattern called for, I thought the gloves turned out a little tight, so I would probably go with a stretchier yarn or larger needles next time. In addition, the skein was quite large, so I ended up with a ton of leftovers.

Vogue Knitting gives this pattern a full 4 out of 4 stars in difficulty, and even though the project goes really quickly, I would have to agree with them. The stars knit up fast, but they are a pain to work through. Like I mentioned, they’re knitted in the round, on double pointed needles, starting from a really small number of stitches for the center and working your way out. Once you get more stitches on the needles it’s not so hard, but those beginning rows are killer. I found it was easiest to work through them if I rested all my needles on a table and knitted that way rather than holding them up with my hands. Furthermore, they’re 5 pointed stars, which makes it difficult to keep track of how you’re repeating the pattern over the 3 needles. I would definitely suggest pattern markers and lots of them; it’s a little easy to get lost in the lace.

But, like I said, the stars are done in just a handful of rows, so the pain is over quickly. I personally probably spent 2 nights on these, and that was including starting over after the first star because I completely lost track of the lace pattern. As I mentioned, after the knitting is finished you’re left with 4 stars: 2 big and 2 small. The fact that they fit over your arm and hand seems almost arbitrary, as when you sew up the points and squeeze them over your hands it feels like it doesn’t belong. Your hands must work around the star shape, and not the other way around. Perhaps if I picked a yarn that was stretchier or at least bigger so the final outcome had a little more give it wouldn’t have felt that way. The main point here is the gloves are a little tight, and they’re a bit of a pain to squeeze into, but you wouldn’t know it when you finally see them on! They truly are a real show-stopper, and look incredibly fancy. Obviously they’re clearly not for warming your arms, but I can see these really topping off an eccentric outfit.

All in all, I would definitely make these again to see if I can get them to be more comfortable next time. If you can handle working in the round with double pointed needles and some confusing lace I would give them a shot. They’ll be finished before you know it and the pain won’t be too lasting.