These stunning lace gloves have several clever surprises and shortcuts to keep you intrigued and eager to move on to the next step. Meg Swansen gets full credit for the brilliant inspiration of using the I-cord technique to work fingers flat, from the tips down (Handknitting With Meg Swansen), and closing the gap by crocheting up the slack. These gloves build on her foundation with the next steps of a new cast-on and patterning across the I-cord tube.

The pattern stitch was inspired by a pair of hand knitted gloves I purchased in Sweden in the mid 90’s. I have never seen the directions in print in any of the stitch guides in my extensive library. The simplicity of the pattern is genius, and a joy to knit in the round. The 8 row repeat across 5 stitches consists of three rows of k2tog’s, with compensating yarn-overs,which slant to the right, a plain knit row, and then three rows of ssk’s with compensating yarn-overs, which slant to the left, ending with another plain knit row. The decreases create a cabled appearance, embellished with trios of yarnovers: exquisite.

These gloves offer the opportunity to work with worsted weight yarn on size 2 needles: The combination of Misti Alpaca’s Tonos 50/50 alpaca wool blend yarn and smaller needles creates a dense yet elastic fabric for satisfaction while knitting and durability when worn. This intriguing design for intermediate knitters can be knit in a weekend by the obsessed. It includes:
· I-Cord fingers, worked flat on two needles from the fingertip down
o The compulsive will want to work slightly shorter fingers for the index and ring: If following 2 sets of charts and arranging the varying finger lengths in order is a bit daunting, just make 3 long and 1 short finger for each hand - you will still have a gorgeous pair of gloves.
· Stunning lace pattern worked on the i-cord fingers, right down to the cuff.
· A surprise solution to dealing with the I-cord slack.
· An afterthought thumb.
· Finger side stitches set aside on tiny stitch holders, ready to be grafted closed to form the webbing between fingers.
· Clever melding of the four fingers into the hand of the glove, with decreases on the palm side, and increases on the pattern side.
· The glove hand is most easily worked on two circular needles: Palm stitches on the silver tipped Addi Turbo Nickel plate; pattern stitches on the gold tipped lace needles. Always work silver tip to silver tip, and gold tip to gold tip just as you would to knit socks on 2 circular needles. Although the glove’s hand can be finished on double points, I do believe it is easier to get all the fingertips in the right order by staging them on circular needles as each finger is finished. The fearless can work all 8 fingers at once and set up both hands to be worked on circs at the same time, using a separate ball of yarn for each glove.
· Decreases for a refined finish at the wrist with ribbing beginning sooner on the palm side. On the patterned side, the lace smoothly transitions to ribbing.
· The loosey lace bind-off for a fast finish, and easy wearing.