Felted Fingerless GlovesDawn Higgins, owner of Biscuit Eater in Mahone Bay offered to teach me how to knit a pair of fingerless gloves. She recommended I go to Have a Yarn and buy some neddles and yarn. Like all men (I am told), I chose a gray yarn and some long needles. It was going to be a couple of weeks before we could get together and I already had the bug. So I search the internew, my first choice, then the library, my second choice, and found a number of sites, videos and books. KnittingHelp.com was a treasure, because she demonstrated both Continential and English style. I liked them so much I bought her iPhone app and was off and running. While in Halifax later that week I stopped in The Loop and Mimi demonstrated the Continential style and showed me the Norwegian addition of leaving the yarn behind the needle when purling. I like the efficiency and small movement of her style and ask her for an hour lesson.
Armed with all my new tools I realized quickily I did not like straight needles and bought an Addi Lace circular. The original pattern was knith flat and then stitched up on the thumb side. I adapted the pattern for my larger hands and removed the thumb part for more mobility and greater ease. My next pair will have a partial thumb cover because the large thumb joint gets cold in the wind.
When completed they seemed airy because of my loose knitting, so I felted them for twenty minutes (five minute intervals) in warm water for a perfect warm fit.