Light as Air Fingerless Gloves

About 2 weeks ago I stopped by my local knitting shop and finally purchased a ball of lace-weight Zealandia Air yarn to make these fingerless gloves using a free pattern by Nathalie O'Shea. They have had a sample glove in their shop for months and every time I visit I love to feel the silky softness of the knit fabric. The yarn is a luxurious blend of cashmere, brushtail possum down, and milberry silk. After finishing the Collibri Cardigan it was nice to have a quick and easy project.







This is the first time I have made a glove. My usual method of circular knitting 2 at a time with the magic loop did not work well because there was too much laddering at the beginning of the round. I pulled out the few rows I had attempted and tried using double pointed needles (DPNs). The DPNs were a bit fiddly and the yarn seemed to be sliding off the needles quite a bit. Finally, I tried and settled on using a very short circular needle (addi metal tip, size #0, 8 inch)

My daughter and I went back to the knitting shop to hang out and knit last week and I asked if they had any small sized cable holders for this project. The nice woman helping us, Kathy, showed me how to do short cables without a cable needle and it was easier and went much faster. 

Basically, for the following pattern: C1F: "slip 1 stitch to cable needle in front, knit 2, then knit the stitch from the cable needle", one would slip the stitch to be cabled to the right needle, knit the next 2 stitches, then slip the 3 stitches off and put the stitch to be cabled on tho the left needle and slip the other 2 knitted stitches back on to the right needle, (holding everything carefully to avoid dropping the stitches!) and then knit the cabled stitch. It's easier than it sounds once you try it a few times.

Fingerless gloves, work in progress.

The final result:

The only downside to this project is that the first glove is slightly larger because my yarn tension was not as tight using the double pointed needles and cable holder. I am considering un-raveling it and knitting it again, but as I have already woven in the loose ends it would likely be more effort than it's worth...