1942 Lacy gloves on two needles - 3/3

The last installment of this project. There is still enough time to start knitting as a Christmas present! In the previous posts I explained the construction of the gloves and discussed the lace pattern. In this post: my adjustments and notes plus the original pattern.
Click for part 1 here and part 2 here.

material

The wool I used is my current favorite, DROPS Baby Merino. It is a fingering weight 100% Merinos wool, a superwash-treated yarn. I wrote about it here. Since gloves usually are exposed to friction you can expect more problems with felting when using untreated wool. I'd suggest to use a superwash-treated or a mix-yarn. Acrylic can be a good option as well. I found that my version used up about the same amount of wool as the original: 2 oz. wool which is about 60 g. Again, a great way to use up some of your left-over yarn from previous projects.

my pattern notes 
- Yarn used: drops baby merino, needle size 3-3.5 for size M gloves
- Tension: 7 sts to the inch (28 sts for 10 cm)
- the amount of stitches is the same as the original, only the amount of rows is adjusted some places.
- to make counting the stitches easier I placed a stitchmarker next to the 24 stitches of the lace pattern (right from the first stitch of the lace pattern)
- instead of counting the stitches of the gusset as suggested by the instructions I placed two stitchmarkers right and left from the gusset increase.
- instead of increasing by knitting two stitches into one I used the method which picks up a strand between two stitches of the previous row illustrated here.
- Used a row-counter, this makes easy to keep track on the lace pattern and to knit the right amount of rows for the fingers as well.

   

my adjustments
- I adjusted the length of the hand and did only 16 rows instead of 18 after finishing the thumb gusset.
- I adjusted the length of the fingers, since I found the originals way too long (although I have pretty normal hands and certainly no short fingers)
thumb: 16 rows + top shaping
first finger: 20 rows + top shaping
second finger: 22 rows + top shaping
third finger: 20 rows + top shaping
fourth finger: 18 rows + top shaping

the original pattern
Note: I found two printing errors in the instructions:
- for making the first finger: start with 36 sts instead of 34, in order to end up with the 18 sts for the front and 20 for the back as stated.

- when knitting the 2-3-4th fingers you need to pick up the stitches facing the wrong side.

Pattern 1/3: Materials, tension and abbrevations:


Pattern 2/3: Left-hand glove, thumb 
(read left column, then right column)


Pattern 3/3: Continuing left hand, right hand and to make up 
(read left column, then right column)

1942 Lacy gloves on two needles - 2/3

Have you started to knit already? In this post we continue the construction and stitch up the gloves. I also explain the pattern chart of the lace insert.
Click for the previous post about the construction here.

stitching
Turn the gloves inside out before stitching. Sew the thumb first, starting from the fingertop, down the side. Because you picked up the stitches between the fingers, the fingers are already attached to each other.


Continue with the sides of the other fingers top down, carefully reinforcing the piece between the fingers with a few extra stitches:


The fingers look like funny sausages!


As I don't like thick seams I used the same 'flat seam' method I described here. Instead of working from the fourth finger down along the sides I started to sew the cuff from the bottom up. The reason is to avoid knotting and darning in ends at the bottom end of the cuff:




I finished the side of the hand starting from the finger down and darning in the ends along the upper part of the cuff:






If you do it right you can work almost seamless:




the lace pattern
The main feature of these gloves are the pretty lace patterned backs. The lace pattern is 24 sts wide and 12 rows high. To avoid disappointment because of any irregularities I'd recommend to (re)count the lace stitches in every row. Although not instructed I'd recommend to place a stitch marker next to the first stitch of the lace pattern. That way you'll always know where to start and where to end your pattern. As always, I worked with a visual pattern chart.


the pattern chart



After the first 12 rows of pattern as in the chart above (the pattern unit starts from the vertical line on the right and ends at the horizontal line on top) 

did you know...
...that lace patterns are made up using three basic stitches: yo (yarn over) which creates the holes, k2tog (knit two together) which makes your stitch next to the hole lean to the right and sl, k, p.s.s.o. (slip one, knit one and pass slipped stitch over) which makes your stitch next to the hole lean to the left. 

   

reversing the lace pattern
The pattern instructs to reverse the lace pattern for the other glove to make them look symmetrical. This is not as hard to do as it seems. you just need to mirror it and replace the K2TOG's (=knit two together) by PSSO's (=slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over) and the PSSO's by K2TOG's.

Next up: my adjustments, pattern notes and the original pattern.

1942 Lacy gloves on two needles - 1/3

It is autumn here in Europe. It is getting dark earlier and after quite a few warm and sunny days the past week has been cold and rainy. It is time to pull out our gloves and hats! (And knit more pretty jumpers of course!) After a long project it is always nice to do a quick one. In the wartime pattern series I've already shared a wartime glove pattern which was knitted on two needles and could make perfect gloves for casual wear, when going for a walk or sitting on the bike. No fuss with 4 needles, a great project for beginners.

This time I have another 2-needle glove pattern to share! While the 'servicewomen gloves' were easy to make this one is rather an intermediate version. Still just 2 needles which makes it a great starter pattern when you are not comfortable with using 4 needles yet. The lace pattern is not as difficult as it seems, if you are carefully counting your stitches and keep track on your row count. In this post a short introduction, a few notes on sizing and a lot of phase pictures to show the details of the construction.



This pattern appeared in a 1942 september issue of the Australian Women's Weekly. Interestingly, due to a printing error, at first only half of the pattern was published, they 'forgot' to include the instructions for the fingers... The corrected version of the pattern appeared about a month later. (Note: I've found a minor printing error in the second version too) Again, the introduction text is intriguing:

"Lacy gloves knitted on two needles. The attractive panel introduced into the gloves lifts them out of the ordinary class. Anyone who can knit a pair of socks can make these with ease. Spare one coupon for wool and make pair of these well-fitting gloves for yourself, and then another pair for a friend. Welcome gift."

What a great idea to knit these gloves as a gift! You can use leftover yarn and knit them in just a few days. As you can see in my pictures and in the original as well, the lace part comes up higher above the wrist than we are used to. The ribbing of our contemporary gloves, usually starts right above the wrists. I think this version is much more elegant, giving the hands an elongated look. Also, when wearing them with a coat there is no ribbing peeping out under your sleeves, you only see the pretty lace pattern. The original bird's perspective picture is just lovely, don't you think?


sizing
The original pattern is for size 6 which is quite small.
The gauge is 10 sts per inch (=40 inches per 10 cm) knitted on size 13 needles (=metric 2.25) To achieve this gauge you should use very fine fingering weight, almost lace weight yarn.
For average size hands, like 7 you need to enlarge the gloves a bit. As always, the AWW advises using a larger needle with the same yarn. I would advise to use slightly thicker yarn instead of upsizing your needles, as loosely knitted garments tend to stretch out very quickly. You don't want to make shapeless gloves, right?
I made mine with a fingering weight yarn, with a gauge of 7 sts to an inch (28 sts to 10 cm) This produce gloves which fit medium size, 7-7.5 hands. I've kept  the same stitch count as the original and only needed to adjust the row count (=length) of the fingers to make them fit perfectly.

phase pictures
When reading the instructions it is really hard to imagine how your work should look like. It is a whole lot of information about picking up extra stitches, making a gusset, then omitting the gusset, in the meantime continuing the lace pattern correctly... I think visual information is always easier to understand. In contrary to the servicewomen gloves which are knitted lengthwise, these gloves are knitted in the 'traditional' way from the bottom up, but flat and not in the round. Let's take a look at the step-by-step phase pictures!

We start to knit at the wrist with a k1, p1 ribbing. Above the ribbing you can divide the pattern into 3 main parts: on the left side you see the lace pattern which forms the back of the glove, on the right the palm of the glove knitted in stocking stitch and in the middle after a few rows we start with shaping a reversed triangle which forms the gusset for the thumb:

did you know...
that a gusset is a triangular or rhomboid piece of fabric inserted into a seam to add some width and reduce stress from tight-fitting clothing. Think of the underarm area of the tight fitting sleeves of the 50's, or the crotch of contemporary tights and pantyhoses.

Below is the finished thumb gusset. Instead of knitting two stitches in one as instructed by the pattern, I used the 'make' a stitch method as I find the results much neater. I discussed this method here. To omit counting the gusset stitches (as suggested by the patten) I used two stitch markers which I placed next to the right and left stitch and did my increases next to those stitch markers. This made making the gusset really easy!


As you can see I also placed a stitchmarker next to the 24 stitches of the lace pattern, that way I didn't have to count the stitches on the right all the time:
   

After finishing the thumb gusset you need to cast on new stitches to make the back of the thumb. I used the same method to cast on stitches as described in my servicewomen gloves pattern here. The thumb and the first finger were pretty straight, except a minor adjustment in the length of the fingers. I made mine shorter, since the instructions of the original pattern should fit the fingers of E.T. in my opinion... Below right is the right length before starting the shaping of the fingertop:
   

All of the fingertops are made the same way, by decreasing the stitches over 3 rows. You pull the yarn through the last stitches and knot by pulling the yarn through the loop (below right)
   

After finishing the thumb you need to knit the lace pattern and the back further. To do this you need to pick on stitches after the lace part of the row, at the bottom of the thumb:
   

The two pictures below are made of the right hand glove, showing the same part above the thumb (just in case you wonder why the lace pattern is on the right instead of the left side). The front and back are connected now.
   

Be sure to fit a few times to measure the right length. I used a simple row-counter again to keep trace of the lace pattern:


The first finger is knitted in a similar way as the servicewomen gloves. The outer side is already attached, you only need to cast on a few stitches for the inner side:
   

The instructions of the second finger gave me some headache and at first sight I just couldn't figure out how it was supposed to work! I guess this is the 'curse' of using original vintage patterns... At the end of the day I decided that for me it was impossible to do it the way the pattern instructs, I had to purl the first row and knit the second instead of knit forst and purl the second... Once I tried this it went like a breeze! The fingers can be made longer or shorter if you wish. The length of the hand above the thumbs can be adjusted as well.

   

For the last 3 fingers you need to pick up stitches at the bottom of the cast-on stitches of the previous finger. That way you connect the two fingers while knitting. I found easer to do this with a crochet needle:
   

Here it is, a finished glove before stitching:


In the next post: stitching up the gloves and the lace pattern.

Knitting gloves on two needles - 1943 pattern (2/2)

For the intro of this post click here and for construction details click here.
Below you find a lot of tips and tricks on how to knit these gloves successfully!







Tricks and tips:
- My BF noticed that the cuff starts a bit high, at the heel of the hand, instead of starting around the wrist. The reason is that your hand gets smaller below the heel of the hand, towards the wrist, but the handpalm and fingers are knitted without shaping. To adjust the shaping and make the lower part more fitted the cuff starts quite high, on the heel of the hand. (You can see this in the original picture too)
- I slipped the first stitches of every row, as usual in order to create a neat edging along the sides. (this time it is also stated in the pattern description!)
I did knit the first stitches of the newly cast on rows.
- The pattern instructs 'K (knit) into the backs of all cast on stitches' when starting a new finger. Why should you knit in the backs of the cast on stitches: If you try you can observe that the stitches knitted in the normal way seem to want to curl up while the stitches knitted into the back of the loop lay nice and flat.

Methods I used to cast on and off:
There are many different methods to cast on and off stitches. The right amount of elasticity is essential for these gloves, so I tried several methods to achieve that. The two methods described below worked for me the best.
Bonus: if you cast on and off as described below you have really nice edges which are easy to sew together, like here:


To cast off stitches between the fingers: 
- Slip the first stitch from the left hand needle to the right hand needle (this is the same as for every row)
- Knit the second stitch.
- Using the left hand needle, lift the first stitch over the second and drop it off the needle.
- You have now one stitch left on your right needle.
- Knit the next stitch and lift the 'left-over' stitch on the right needle over the new stitch with your left needle.
- Repeat.

To cast on new stitches between the fingers:


- Knit row then turn work as if you are going to start the next row. (= your existing stitches are on the left needle)
- Insert the right needle in the space between the first two stitches and knit: yarn around the needle and pull yarn forward.
- Transfer the new stitch back to the left needle.
- Knit into the space between the new stitch and the second stitch in the same way and put it on the left needle too.
- Continue until you have the desired amount of extra stitches on the needle, plus one.
- When knitting the row knit this last (extra cast on) stitch together with the first stitch of the existing stitches.

Why to cast on an extra stitch?
When knitting the row, there is often a longer piece of yarn between the existing stitches and the first newly cast on stitch which creates a weak point. To avoid this and make the place between the fingers firmer, knit the last (extra cast on) stitch together with the first stitch of the existing stitches.

If you haven't used these techniques before I would advise to practice it to make sure the new stitches are not too tight or too loose! Here is a picture of how a finger should look like (this side you work on is the wrong side when assembling the gloves) If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Left picture below: the wrong side of the work (you cast on and off on this side) Right picture: shows the right side of the work (observe that the rows on the left and right edges of the fingers look more alike):
   

How to make a flat seam?




Here is what a finished seam line looks like from the right side of the work:


Picking up the stitches for the cuffs:
- The pattern instruct you to pick up stitches for the cuffs. Since the gloves are knitted lengthwise, the cuff will be knitted sideways to that.
- Hold the gloves with the right side of the work facing you.
- The stitches should be picked up working from right to left
- With the garter stitch the edges will have small bobbles in every 2nd row (instead of chains when knitting with stocking stitch) see picture below. The easiest way is to pick up the new stitches between these bobbles.
- Pick up the stitches with a crochet needle and count them.

A little trick: You are often instructed to mark the work and distribute the desired amount of stitches evenly between the markings when picking up new stitches. I rather pick up a few more stitches and adjust the amount by K2TOG's in the first row. This is easier and makes a neater finish i.m.o. than leaving 'gaps' when picking up the stitches. I also transfer the new stitches after every 10 stitches to my knitting needle, this makes it easier to count.

- I picked up 50 stitches. This is 2 more than the 48 the pattern instructs.
We adjust the amount of stitches when knitting the first row by K2TOG's.
- The pattern instruct to pick up 48 stitches, 50-48=2 so I had to get rid of 2 extra stitches. I choose to knit 2 stitches together in the first row on either side of the of the thumb. If you have more stitches you should distribute your K2TOG's evenly.




The pattern:

• Needles: no. 10 (metric 3.5) voor loose knitters no.11 (metric 3)
• Material: To achieve the right size I recommend to use a dk-weight yarn. For the larger size you can use worsted/Aran weight yarn and a larger needle. The pattern indicates 2 oz.=40 g wool for a pair. (I used acrylic yarn for the black test-glove and it took about 30g for just one glove, even with just a 1 inch cuff. This would make about 80g acrylic yarn for one pair) 
• Gauge: is not stated in the original description. To determine the gauge needed: Measure the length of your hand palm from the horizontal wrist-line to the middle finger. distract 1/2 inch (or 1.2 cm) from it. This is length should be about the same as 18-20 stitches in your gauge swatch. You can achieve this by using DK-weight yarn or for a large/extra-large size using worsted/Aran weight yarn.
• By using thicker yarn you can easily adjust the size! I wouldn't recommend using a larger needle because loosely knitted gloves won't be warm.

This pattern appeared in an 1943 issue of the Australian Women's Weekly magazine. All original newspaper images through Trove, all other images are mine.

Is there anything I would change?
The pattern is really easy to make up and is accurate as well. The only thing I would change next time is to make the length of the thumb shorter because my thumbs are a bit shorter (10 stitches instead of the recommended 12 stitches)
Other than that the gloves are perfect!