Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves – Carol Rasmussen Noble – Lark Books – Sterling Publishing – New York – 2002

This book is out of print but is available from Amazon books in both new and used format.

I made a stunning – stunning to me – realization yesterday.  With all of the gloves I have knit, I have never knit any fair-isle gloves.  That is about to change.

In starting my research for this new project I pulled out my one book on knitting fair isle gloves – Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves.  This book is a pattern book.  It does contain some history and a small how-to section but it’s strength is the depth of the patterns available.  There are 40 patterns for women and children.  Mittens, Fingerless Gloves (these are all short finger gloves) and Gloves.  Most of the patterns could be easily resized for a larger hand. The pictures and graphs are very clear.

The basic patterns for each section are the first entry and the next patterns for the same item work from the first basic pattern.  There is a glossary of terms in the beginning chapter.  These patterns are all very intricate, with patterning on the front and backs of the palm.  Some of the gloves even have patterning on the fronts and backs of the fingers and thumbs.  Most of the cuffs are plain ribbing, usually 1 x 1, or 2 x 2, but some of the cuffs are ornately patterned, some are patterned and folded.  They are simply gorgeous.  There is also a pair of Shetland lace gloves – they have solid fingers and cuff with a simple striping lace pattern on the back and palm of the hand (upper corner of the cover).  They are all beautiful.

This book is full of inspiration, the pictures alone give very clear colour combinations.  There are no alternative colour combinations given but there are so many in the book, with a little imagination you can see alternatives to the pattern you chose.

I haven’t knit any of the patterns from the book and still  most likely won’t as I want to design my own pattern.  As a starting point for my design this is a fabulous piece of inspiration.  As a pattern book for knitting this is equally great.  Something for everyone at every level of knitting skill – except for the beginning knitter.

Happy Glove Knitting

Lynette