Craftoholic’s infamous Mermaid Gloves were a challenge to make, especially for such an OCD knitter as myself. The person I made them for wanted them super long and to use up all the yarn. So I did 4.5 total pattern repeats before the thumb gusset. Since the pattern doesn’t specify what kind of thumb gusset was used, I followed the gusset directions of the Nereid Gloves at Sutherland Studios until I had 21 stitches for the thumb. I “absorbed” the yarn overs from the fourth horizontal pattern repeat to do this, thus pinching in the hand a bit for a snugger fit.
Once the 21 stitches were formed, I put them on spare yarn and had to build back the “lost” horizontal repeat and work the rest of the palm (thus working rows 1-22 again).
The gloves were finished with twisted rib. Now with the extra half repeat in the body of the glove, I started to run out of yarn. So a full 10 rounds of twisted rib for the hands and thumbs didn’t work out. I think I averaged 7 rounds before the bind off. It was sort of touch and go for awhile. I binded off using a 3.25 needle for a looser bind off.
I also reversed the pattern for the left glove replacing the k2tog tbl with a plain k2tog. This worked out mostly, although I can tell a difference, but was the most common substitution people used on Ravelry and the easiest.
The other variation was after the last k2tog of each pattern repeat segment (so when the pattern reversed directions), instead of working a ktbl, I knit plainly, so the union would lay flatter. Then on the next round I continued the twisted rib pattern. It sounds confusing, but it really made sense once I started knitting.
The other variation, thanks to FurrPurls, is to twist the yarn overs every round you knit a ktbl into it, so it faces the other direction. This way it lays on top of the work, instead of underneath, and mimics the original pattern more. If you work it the other way, you’ll notice an additional difference in the pattern, a sort of sunken in pattern instead of the raised ridges.
stash knit down 2009 total: 45 FOs
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