Free pattern: Seattle gloves ARAN weight

Last week I was contacted on Ravelry by a knitter named Becky.

She told me that she wanted to make a fingerless glove for her husband, preferably with my Seattle pattern using  ARAN weight yarn.

Since my original Seattle gloves are knitted with US#3, and Becky wants to make them with ARAN weight yarn, re-calculations and ultimately re-writing the whole pattern are in order. 

Instead of just re-calculate/re-write the existing pattern, I want to show you what it entails to do this. It's a lot of work!

What happens if...

Question:

Let's say Becky would have printed out my original Seattle glove pattern and instead of using needle size US#3 and recommended yarn weight, she would have used needle size US#9 and ARAN weight yarn. How would the outcome have been?

Answer: 

Becky's Seattle glove would have come out WAY TOO BIG! 

And if Becky would have chosen to work the Seattle gloves with needle size US#1 and SOCK weight yarn, her Seattle glove would have come out WAY TOO SMALL.

In order for you to use different size needles and yarn, you will have to re-calculate the whole pattern.

Getting technical with it

The stitch pattern that is used in the Seattle gloves is called the Basket stitch and is worked with a multiple of 8 over 8 rows.

In the original Seattle gloves you cast on 42 stitches and work the pattern. However, when you want to work with ARAN weight and you want the same outcome you need to cast on 28 stitches in order to get the same finished measurements as the orignal Seattle gloves.

Subsequently, the whole stitch pattern will change in numbers:

Within the original Seattle the calculations are as follows:

4x8=40 + 2 extra stitches for seaming edge= 42 stitches total

Within the ARAN weight Seattle the calculations will be as follows:

3x8=24 + 2 extra stitches + another 2 extra stitches for seaming edge= 28 stitches in total

And I also made calculation for WORSTED weight:

3x8=24 + 6 extra stitches + another 2 extra stitches for seaming edge= 32 stitches in total

Trial and error, baby

Question:

Nancy, but how do you come to these numbers?

Answer: 

Willingness to calculate and...trial and error! 

Most of the time I just cast on a certain number and hope for the best only to find out that the piece is too big or too small. Then I cast on again until it just fits right. See, you have to be willing to make mistakes and start anew!

Let's get knitting!

You got your ARAN weight yarn and US#9 ready? Let's go! 

For this picture tutorial I am using Malabrigo Twist Aran weight.

Step 1: k1, p1 ribbing for 3 rows and then 2 rows of st st stitch:

The first 4 rows of the stitch pattern will look like this:

Repeat the 8 row stitch pattern 3 times in total (which will yield 6 squares counted from top to bottom):

Top it off with 2 rows of stockinette stitch and 5 rows of k1,p1 ribbing:

For the seaming part use the mattress stitch aka the invisible stitch.

Start from the top down, then work from the bottom up and leave enough space for your thumb.

You will see that I have included two different sizes in the pattern: a size for her and a size for him...awww...

The men size will fit a medium man's hand. If you want it bigger, just add 1 or 2 stitches on either side and work it as stockinette stitch.

Same for the women size!

Oh, and if you might wonder how I calculated how much yards is needed... I frogged the gloves...and just counted the yards. Yikes.

I need a weighing scale, pronto.

Tomorrow, I will post the Seattle gloves in WORSTED weight. 

Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow!