Spidery Hobo Gloves

[arrmatie]

I made these for my BF to keep his hands warm while biking.


The spider pattern is from Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs and the glove pattern is very loosely based on Marnie Maclean's Hooray for Me gloves, adapted for some gi-normous hands.

This is me trying to adjust the contrast so you can actually see the design:

[bespectacled]

Those are awesome! I LOVE that spider pattern but just havent found the time to sit down and pay attention to it... excellent job

[guessica]

those are badass!  excellent use of spiders.

[LeSophie]

Yep - the BEST fingerless gloves I've seen yet.  Lucky boy.

[atomikpop]

that spider pattern is FANTASTIC!! thanks for sharing!

[lisascenic]

Oh, I love these gloves so much!!!!!!! You're amazing!  What a great fusion of two wonderful designs!

Would you mind telling us what yarn you used? 

[arrmatie]

The yarn was a hand-me-off from a friend of mine from New Zealand.  It's called Perendale by a company called Viscount.  It's 100% wool and I think it's DK weight.  It's as warm as anything but I'm worried it'll felt so much that you can't see the pattern anymore.  Has anyone had this happen with twist stich designs in wool?

[lisascenic]

I wouldn't worry about the spiders felting.  The palms may felt a bit, since they will be subject to moisiture and abrasion.

I'm so impressed with your beautiful craftsmanship, particularly how the spiders legs line up perfectly with the ribbing.  These gloves are really a masterpiece.  They make me think of the myth of Arachne, who was (too good of) a fibers artist!

How much swatching did you have to do to get this pattern to work?  Do you have any recollection of the gauge or the size needles you used?

[arrmatie]

I used size 2 needles and, as for swatching, I just knit a few rows to make sure it would be about the right size.  I was enlarging the pattern by changing the yarn weight and gauge so I basically winged it.  I was  locked into having a certain number of stitches in a round because I wanted the spider panel to be the entire top half of the glove.  The panel is 29 stitches wide which meant the glove had to be 58 stitches around (I guess it could have been a few stitches more or less without anyone noticing, but that's the way I thought of it). 
When not being worn the gloves look absurdly long and narrow but when my boyfriend puts them on they stretch into shape.  I suppose this means they have two gauges, depending on whether or not they're being worn.
As for the legs lining up with the ribbing, that's just the accidental consequence of the spider design, which has an odd number of stitches between the legs.  Center it on a rib and there you go.

[lisascenic]

Which Barbara Walker book is this pattern in? I've got the first two treasury of knitting patterns, but don't see it. 

I've been considering a cable knit sweater for my sweetie, and it would be great to run spiders up the arms.  Although, the thought of knitting a sweater on #2's does not completely fill me with joy...