Roman Road Fingerless Mitts
I’ve been test knitting a couple of sizes on the pattern of a design I worked up about a year ago and then had to put aside. Meet “Roman Road Fingerless Mitts”. Ignore the the lavender top edge on the right glove…I ran out of the original color in the test knit!
Size 6.5” on left, and size 7.5” palm circumference on right. Note the cuffs are different! C4L and C4R was used on the gray mitt, while C4F and C4B was used on the salmon/pink mitt.
As you can see, this is a unisex design, which is typical of most of my accessory designs. The right glove is more representative of the actual pattern, which will use C4F and C4B for the cuff. And if you notice a bit more decreased narrowness at the top of the gray….yeah, that’s a custom fit for my daughter whose fingers are long and thin, so I had to make some additional decreases on the hand and the thumb. I’ve decided to add notes to the pattern that will say, “If making this for a thinner hand, add additional decreases on this rd, and general suggestion as to where to best hide the change. Each size has different configurations of stitch count (some odd, some even), at any given time, and I’ve maintained the seed stitch in the pattern for all seven sizes in the writing of the pattern. But when someone needs to make even further adjustments, the best a designer can do is make suggestions on when and how!
This design uses a palm gusset, meaning all the gusset stitches are set aside out of the original hand stitch count , with increases occurring within the body of the glove rather than the gusset.. The result is a consistent number of stitches throughout the gusset (which can make for all sorts of design possibilities), along with a graceful curving line along the gusset on the top of the hand. I kept the design concept simple for the gusset in this design (a cable on the thumb edge on a background of seed stitch), but in the 12-15 hour workshop I teach on designing fingerless mitts, I’ve seen some fantastic pattern designs in the palm gusset, with the focus being the gusset rather than the hand of the mitts. (That workshop also covers 3 other gusset designs).
This pattern will be out in the next few months, but if you want a head start and want to help me out, contact me about test knitting it. Test knitters are vital to a good pattern—they confirm the math is correct (or not!) for the size they are knitting, and help determine whether the pattern format and wording is clear for all knitters. (BTW, once published, you will receive the pattern for free, of course!) If any of you would like to test knit some of the remaining sizes, those being palm sizes 6”, 7”, 8”, 8.5”, or 9”, send me an email message through this website, and I’ll send you details of yarn weight, needles, and the draft pattern, along with a very simple nondisclosure agreement…which includes a knitter’s curse for breaking it, something like, “if you share this pattern with others, may moths attack your stash.” But since none of you would ever do that, you have nothing to worry about!
As always, feel free to contact me through this website. I’m happy to answer questions, hear suggestions, and entertain ideas.