New Release: World War G{loves}

Here's a funny story for you:  About a month ago, I was hard at work on my husband's secret birthday sweater.  I brought it with me to Knit Night every week, with a decoy project in tow as well, just in case Jason asked me what I had worked on that night.  Darn those husbands that take an interest in what you do....it takes a lot more effort to pull off a surprise for them!

So on this particular day, I happened to meet my husband for lunch.  I told him that I had just finished up whatever project I had been working on....and as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized I had made a mistake.  Now I had no decoy project to take with me that evening to Knit Night.

But I left for Knit Night before he got home from work that evening, so he didn't see my bag that was "chock full of sweater".  When I came home that night, I actually left the sweater project bag in the trunk of my car, so he didn't see it when I came home either.

But as I sat at The Fiber Universe that evening working on his sweater, I thought about what I was going to say if he asked me what I worked on.  For most of the evening, I thought I was just going to tell him that I didn't work on anything and just decided to sit & visit with the other knitters.  But just before I was ready to leave, the answer hit me:  the new Frog Tree Llambrosia yarn I had been drooling over.

My local yarn shop just started carrying this line of yarn in September, and I had been eyeing it, thinking I would definitely want to use it to write a pattern.  I bought two skeins of yarn in a light brown that I liked, still not knowing what they were going to be.  My plan was now to tell m husband that I had stared at these two balls of yarn all evening trying to figure out what they might be.  He'd believe that story.  I spend a significant amount of time staring at yarn.

But it takes me about 20 minutes to drive home from the yarn shop.  And by the time I got home, I knew that the Llambrosia was going to be gloves, probably fingerless ones.  I wanted them to be simple but interesting.  No fussy stitch patterns, but I didn't want plain stockinette, either.  I had experimented with some alpaca yarn a couple months back that I had considered turning into fingerless gloves, and I remembered liking the way it looked when the stockinette fabric was kind of "bunched up" with wrinkles showing.  And the idea of welts was born.

The welts are super-easy to do.  If you can pick up stitches and knit 2 stitches together (1 stitch from each of 2 needles held parallel), you've got this.  If you're still not sure, you can check out my welting video here.

In keeping with the theme of "simple & slightly rumpled", I went with a turned hem.  I didn't do a purl row as the turning row (because that gave them too tailored of a look), but I'm sure some will prefer to make that modification.  Which is great - I can't remember the last pattern I knit (besides my own) that I didn't modify in some way!

And the name?  When I showed my husband the finished gloves and said, "What do these make you think of?" he read my mind and said, "The apocalypse."  I guess that's why we're married....we tend to share a brain sometimes.  I had been knitting them up thinking, "These look like fingerless gloves that might be worn by an army of zombie-fighters in one of those crazy movies."  He agreed.  Playing off the name of one of the more famous recent-ish zombie movies, "World War Z", I named these "World War G{loves}".  I was pretty pleased with myself, then immediately started to wonder if this was going to end up being an inside joke with myself.  Luckily, some of the lovely people who are connected to my Facebook business page reassured me that they got the reference, as well!

MargiBorck, WoollyKim, & LTimms were the brave testers who took on this project.  They all called this an intermediate project, and I agree with that.  There are a few techniques used that might be new to a less-experienced knitter (find a list on the pattern listing page here), but I give links in the pattern for the ones I think might throw you for a loop.

If you're substituting yarns, I'd recommend using one with a significant amount of llama or alpaca in it.  Wool will work, but the 100% baby llama yarn the sample gloves were made from have a drape that is much more similar to alpaca than it is to wool.  The welts will end up a bit stiffer & more pronounced when done in a high wool-content yarn.  Even having a plant fiber-blend (such as bamboo), possibly with some silk in there for strength, will give a drape that is relatively close to the llama yarn.

This pattern is written as a "one size fits most women" size, but suggestions are included for using sport-weight yarn paired with a smaller needle to make a child-size pair, or worsted-weight yarn paired with a larger needle for a man-sized pair.  I used Mirasol Yarn's Nuna  (a silk/wool/bamboo blend) which made a beautiful child-sized pair and Cascade 220 (100% wool, which is why I know now not to recommend high-wool content yarn!) for my man-sized pair.

These gloves were a quick knit and might make a great gift for someone on your holiday list this year!  The pattern is now available on Ravelry here!