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We're In This Glove Together

Thursday, Beth asked the following question about knitting the Herringbone gloves:

"Did you plug the color charts into a favorite basic glove pattern? Or did you just make a lot of educated guesses? ;-)"

I've actually had a couple of emails about this topic, so I'll try to clear this up today. I have written before that the charts are very clear and very specific (see the pattern and charts here for about the 10th time). However, other than seeing immediately that I had to cast on 64 stitches (by observing the schematic of the glove in the Japanese pattern) and understanding the herringbone pattern charts, I was a initially a bit lost.

Saku wrote to me about knitting these gloves after I knit the Sanquhar gloves from the ABCs of Knitting site. When I saw her completed pair, I knew I had to make a pair for myself. So in all honesty, I would say that the first and most important step in understanding a Japanese pattern is really, really, really wanting to reproduce the item in question.

I was lucky. As it happened, Minako and Noriko were both working on the same glove pattern about a week before I started. They not only posted photos in progress, but they also discussed gauge and working the thumb gusset. (Mari is also knitting these gloves, and you can see her beautiful first glove here. Scroll down to about midpage.)

For me, working these gloves visually from charts, with help from Minako, Saku, and Noriko's photos, was fairly easy. Being able to read the schematic to determine that the hand would be 64 st around, with 20 st used for the little finger, 24 st for the ring, index, and middle fingers, and 28 for the thumb, was enough information to start. Noriko had translated the gauge in one of her blog entries. The fact that the back is salt and pepper with black borders that run directly up to the fingers also helped; if I kept the vertical black lines on the palm straight, it was easy to read the knitting. I sincerely wanted my gloves to look like the gloves my Japanese Knitting-blogger pals were knitting, so I didn't want to just plug herringbone stitch patterns into a basic glove pattern.

A very good idea was offered by Caroline F. When she started her gloves, she ran the Japanese pattern through Altavista's Babelfish program. If I had thought of that solution first, I would have done the same. Instead, though, I studied Tata-Tatao's tutorials on Knitting A Japanese Pattern, and Reading Japanese Knitting Charts. The ABCs of Knitting includes a dictionary of Japanese knitting term translations, and I found that helpful too. I'm sure that sounds as if I did it the hard way, but I enjoyed the process, and process is really the most enjoyable part of knitting for me. Next time I would probably follow Caroline's lead, and babelfish-it! The success of reproducing this glove from a Japanese pattern has mightily encouraged me to believe I can knit the Japanese Fair Isles in my new books.

This is a rather long-winded answer, but I wanted to make sure it was understood that I didn't want to change the pattern. Imitation, in this case, is not only a sincere form of flattery but a beautiful glove. I highly recommend it (if the pattern appeals to you), because you'll learn a lot about elegant glove construction.

Wait. What was the question? Heh. Oh yeah! The answer: I followed the charts, and got by with a little help from my friends.

Landra's Gloves

These are coming along nicely. I didn't think I was going to like them; in fact, I thought that they would make my hands look like Minnie Mouse glove-hands. The design element on the fingertips ensures that no Disneyesque comparisons even come to mind. They're going to be very pretty.

Vannalin Gloves

Did you see Nanette's?? They are swoon-worthy.

Pups

We're so happy that it's Friday. This blog is about knitting and the pups, but I must mention that I had to have a couple of very scary MRIs this week, and Laura got me through them. I'm not trying to sound mysterious; I tell you only because I want you to know I have the Most Wonderful Sister in the Universe. All is well! (Laura and I were both sorry that we hadn't remembered our cameras so as to document the procedures for future blog entries.)

Just observe the look on Della's face:

We all have that same smile around here!

Happy Friday to you; happy, happy weekend.

Glove—Exciting and New.

Come aboard; we're expecting you...well, we are expecting you, but we don't have completed gloves to show you, so you'll just have to imagine the glove boat making a rendezvous soon (tomorrow, perhaps). I'm doing what I promised myself I wouldn't do, and that is having more than one pair of gloves on needles. Right now I have three pair, three! Two from Folk Knitting in Estonia, and the Herringbone Gloves that I haven't completed as a pair. I better jump ship and focus on one glove destination or I won't get to start the new pair I'm envisioning, or my new tibetan-influenced tam.

Pretty!

This Scottish knit designer has some very lovely designs. No patterns, but the knits are definitely worth a look if you have time today to be inspired.

Astounding!

This Scottish knit designer has an astonishing coat on her website. It is also worth a look, in fact, it's worth a second look if you have time today to be amazed.

Pups

Thursday Thursday Thursday! We wish you a happy one!

Motherwit Knit

My "Landra's Gloves" stitch count problem was very quickly solved with Elka, Nanette, and Mary's help. Thank you so much for your wise and sensible advice! My glove train is happily back on track. Thanks, too, to the bilingual knitters who let me know that I couldn't order directly from Nihon Vogue-sha. However! Mari, Kaori, and Cursing Katherine hipped me to several other sources, the most promising being Kinokuniya, because their English is 100,000 times better than my Japanese. I feel as though I should have remember Kinokuniya, because I have actually ordered from them before, with excellent results. Remember this Fair Isle Book?

I'm completely crazy about the family photo on the front cover, and there are some nice patterns in this book. You can also order it here if you'd like a copy.

Slammin Tams

The Tam-along over at ASOF is in full swing and there are some very pretty tams showing up in the photo folders at this Yahoo Group site. I was so inspired by the beauties this group is knitting that I ordered Mary Rowe's book, Knitted Tams (ISBN 0-934026-48-3), and it arrived today. The circular shape of the tam sends my imagination toward mandalas, and the idea of being able to wear a knitted representation of Om Mani Padme Hung on my head nearly sends me around the knitting-bend.

A Tibetan Buddhist Mandala:

A hand-knit designer tam from Blackberry Patch Farm's Tam Shop:

See what I mean? Am I right? Awesome!

Pups

It's Wednesday! Della says Things Are Definitely Looking Up.

Knit! Knit! Knit! and enjoy your day.

Calling Dr. Glove

That's right. I'm calling Dr. Glove. In "Landra's Gloves," after knitting the little finger, you're directed to place the eight front stitches and the eight palm stitches on the needles, plus the SIX new stitches. What six new stitches? Not the cast on six that you add at the base nearest the middle finger; but six new stitches. You can't pick them up from the little finger, because you are a quarter-inch above the base of the little finger. Well, you can, but it looks very peculiar. I've checked for errata at the IK site and also at the Knitting Pages. This isn't covered under the corrections at Marsha's site. Am I misreading this pattern? If you have Folk Knitting in Estonia, and can check page 90 for me under Ring Finger, perhaps you've got the cure I'm thinking of. Please give it up.

Nihon Vogue-sha Company

I've been admiring all the books on the Nihon Vogue-sha Company shopping site, especially here. While I already have this beautiful book, ordered with some trepidation but ultimate success through Amazon.jp, I didn't realize that you could order kits from the book from the Nihon Vogue-sha Company website. Take a look at some charming Fair Isle kits at fairly reasonable prices.

Looking around this website, I realized you have to register for some type of Nihon Vogue knitting club to be able to place orders. And I have orders I want to place! Go here, then select the knitting icon. Scroll down on the page that opens, and you'll be rewarded with the sight of a 21 Nihon Vogue knitting book covers, at least 12 or so of which I'd like to buy. I tried registering so I could order some of the Mitsuharu Hirose books, but stumbled on the response page. And, I can't tell from Altavista's babelfish translation whether the company will ship to the US. If you know the answer, or, if you know where some of these publications can be found in the US, please let me know. They look so much more interesting than the knitting magazines and books available to us in the US. Although I must say it's a golden era for knitting books in English, with so many available, and I'm most appreciative of everything (except maybe Celebrity Scarves). But I'd like to have some of these Japanese publications, now that I know Japanese knitting charts are lovely to knit from.

Pups

It's Tuesday. Della says a dachshund's work is never done.

We hope your work is done with plenty of time leftover for knitting.
Cheers! You're a knitter! You Rock!

Little Knitting

We spent the weekend working on a paper, and while we feel quite virtuous about having accomplished so much writing, we got very little knitting done. Today's entry is Knitting-Blog-Lite.

Landra's Glove

We only managed to knit the little finger.

But it's a cute little finger, so we'll take a closer look:

That's all. No more knitting.

Pups

It's Monday! Della says "Nothing dachshund, nothing gained."

See you tomorrow!