Iraq Fingerless Gloves Pattern

Apparently these fingerless gloves are creating a lot of envy in Mr. Yarnworks' unit, so I promised I'd post the pattern. As knitters know, projects like these take many hours and while I love Mr. Yarnworks and his guys, I'm not going to spend his entire deployment clothing his troops.

Now why do guys in 120 degree temps need gloves? Simple. When the temps drop even to 70 degrees at night after being out in the insane heat all day, it feels outright frigid. Also, according to Mr. Yarnworks, they recently got temps low enough that snow fell. He's getting a lot of use out of his gloves.

This pattern is a modification of this one: http://www.hjsstudio.com/redscarf.html Now, in retrospect, there's a closer pattern here: http://www.hjsstudio.com/rc2hand.html but at the time, I wasn't planning to add fingers and wanted to keep it simple. But Mr. Yarnworks begged and he doesn't often ask me to knit for him, so I folded and adjusted the pattern myself. Also, I should note that Mr. Yarnworks has large hands, so this pattern is meant to suit him. Adjust the pattern accordingly.Materials:

Size US2 double pointed needles (5 works best)

100g Fingering weight superwash wool

Stitch Marker
Stitch Holders


A note on yarn choice. I used KnitPicks Essentials 75% Superwash Wool/25% Nylon in "Fawn" which seems to be discontinued already. Black is always a good choice too. Now, first and foremost, if you are making this for someone going overseas, please please please use wool if at all possible. Wool has the incredible property of being self-extinguishing. If you hold a flame to it and then take the flame away, wool will stop burning. What burned will be ash and there will be no more fire. So if your Soldier or Marine is in an explosion, you want them to be wearing wool. If your serviceperson is allergic to wool, the second best option is cotton, which at least burns clean. Think of a candle wick. It burns, but it burns fairly quickly and won't hold the flame on the skin. There's nothing left once the cotton burns. Whatever you do, please please don't use acrylic or another synthetic fiber. These fibers are plastic. Yes, plastic. Take a length of acrylic yarn and hold it over the sink and light the end on fire and watch what happens. It melts! If your serviceperson is wearing gloves made of acrylic and survives an explosion, there's a very real chance they'll have plastic grafted to their hands and arms. That's not good. Now, in this case, I used a yarn with 25% nylon, but we did the burn test before using it. The wool content is high enough that it still self-extinguishes...although if I had been thinking more clearly when I began, I would have picked a 100% wool yarn.


Also, "superwash" means that these are machine washable. Many of our servicepeople send out their laundry. If your wool isn't superwash, it will come back to them felted unless they have the forethought to hand wash it themselves. Let's not test how well we know our troops. Make it easy on them and make it superwash.



CO 70
Row 1: K4, P1 to end; join in the round, being careful not to twist
Row 2: K4, P1 around


Continue in pattern for approximately 8" or desired length to bottom of thumb.

To create the thumb hole, simply knit back and forth in the pattern (K4,P1 one row and P4, K1 the next) for approximately 2" to 2.5", then rejoin in the round.

Continue in pattern another 1.5" to base of fingers. At this point, you can bind off to create simple wristwarmers. Or, continue below if you prefer short little fingers as Mr. Yarnworks does.

Slide the stitches off onto stitch holders and be prepared to move the stitches around a bit as you pick up stitches for each finger.

Use this diagram to help guide you.

First, pick up 3 stitches by the thumb on one DPN and 9 stitches on each of two other DPNs.

Begin to knit around. Cast-on 3 more stitches between the fingers before knitting the second set of 9 stitches. You should end up with a total of 24 stitches around. Continue knitting around for 8 rows (or desired length). Bind off.

Slip the next 9 stitches on either side onto DPNs. Pick up 3 stitches from base of last finger.
Begin to knit around. Cast-on 3 more stitches between the fingers before knitting the second set of 9 stitches. You should again end up with a total of 24 stitches around. Continue knitting around for 8 rows. Bind off.

Slip the next 8 stitches on either side onto DPNs. Pick up 3 stitches from base of last finger.
Begin to knit around. Cast-on 3 more stitches between the fingers before knitting the second set of 8 stitches. you should end up with a total of 22 stitches around. Continue knitting around for 8 rows. Bind off.

Slip next 6 stitches on either side onto DPNs. Slip remaining 3 stitches onto another DPN. Pick up 3 stitches from base of last finger. You should now have 18 stitches on the needles. Knit around for 8 rows. Bind off.

Tuck in your ends, closing any holes between fingers as you do.

And you're done! Now go find some really gorgeous handpainted sock yarn and make a pretty pair for yourself!