Ichnology is the branch of geology that deals with traces of organisms, such as burrows, nests, and footprints. When I was designing these little gauntlets all I could think about was how the cute little paw prints were actually quite an accurate representation about how my cats walk all over me while I try to knit, and so, being the geologist, I started imagining the lace on my gloves like little scaber toothed kitty footprints preserved in the rock record.
Yarn used: Blue moon fiber arts socks that rock lightweight (1/5th of a skein). Although any fingering weight yarn will do and since these gloves (as written) take less than 100 yards, you can probably whip these up out of some left over sock yarn.
Needles used: US size 2 (2.75mm) or size needed to obtain 8 sts and 12 rows per inch (roughly)
Resizing options: any yarn weight or needle size may be used and I have written the pattern so that it should be easily adapted.
CUFF
Cast on 45 sts using a stretchy cast on (I use long tail cast on over 2 needles) To make a different size, cast on any multiple of 4+13 sts. (e.g. 5*4+13=33, 10*4+13=53)
Rows 1-5: K11, P2, work K2, P2 rib to end of round (for 45 sts work K2, P2 8 times)
Row 6: Place marker, work paw print chart, Place marker, P2, work K2, P2 rib to end of round. The markers denote where the paw print chart is, the rest is just K2, P2 rib.
(for symmetrical gloves, start the paw print chart on row 11 on one cuff)
*Repeat row 6 for 2 whole repeats of the paw print chart then divide for thumb:
DIVIDE FOR THUMB (RIGHT HAND)
R1 (Right side): Work paw print chart, P2, K2, P2, K1, TURN WORK, Place marker to denote new beginning of round! To resize go to ***
R2 (Wrong side): Sl1 Purlwise, K2, P2, K2, work WS of paw print chart (i.e. P all K sts, K all P sts etc.), Knit sts as they lie until new beginning of round, TURN WORK.
R3 (Right side): Sl1 Knitwise, P2, (K2, P2) to paw print chart, work paw print chart, P2, K2, P2, K1, TURN WORK
*Repeat R2 and R3 until R15 of paw print chart
R15 (Right side): Sl1 Knitwise, P2, (K2, P2) to paw print chart, work paw print chart, P2, K2, P2, K1 (DO NOT TURN WORK), K1 (this is the “end of round” stitch… to tighten this up, slip this stitch then work a Cat Bordhi “hungry stitch” the row above), P2, (K2, P2) to paw print chart.
R16-20: Work paw print chart, P2, work K2, P2 rib to end of round.
Bind off LOOSELY, I like Judy’s super stretchy bind off or EZ’s sewn bind off.
DIVIDE FOR THUMB (LEFT HAND)
R1 (Right side): Work paw print chart, P2, (K2, P2) to last 7 sts (i.e. to middle of second last K2 rib) TURN WORK, Place marker to denote new beginning of round!
R2 (Wrong side): Sl1 Purlwise, K2, (P2, K2) until paw print chart, work WS of paw print chart (i.e. P all K sts, K all P sts etc.), Knit sts as they lie until new beginning of round, TURN WORK.
R3 (Right side): Sl1 Knitwise, P2, (K2, P2) to paw print chart, work paw print chart, P2, (K2, P2) until last stitch before new beginning of round, K1, TURN WORK
*Repeat R2 and R3 until R15 of paw print chart
R15 (Right side): Sl1 Knitwise, P2, (K2, P2) to paw print chart, work paw print chart, P2, (K2, P2) until last stitch before new beginning of round, K1, (DO NOT TURN WORK), K1 (this is the “end of round” stitch… to tighten this up, slip this stitch then work a Cat Bordhi “hungry stitch” the row above), P2, (K2, P2) to paw print chart.
R16-20: Work paw print chart, P2, work K2, P2 rib to end of round.
Bind off LOOSELY, I like Jeny’s suprizingly stretchy bind off or EZ’s sewn bind off.
*** To resize, slip the cuff over your wrist and decide where you would like the paw prints to sit on your hand (I put mine on the back of the hand but you might want yours placed differently). Then determine where a comfortable place would be for a thumb hole (I chose the middle of a K2 so that the edging looked nicer). Mark this spot with a removable stitch marker then work as follows:
R1: Work paw print chart, work P2, K2 rib until marker, TURN WORK
Work as written, but note that the K2, P2 stitch count for your gauntlet might be quite different.
Paw Print Chart *Thanks to the Tsock Tsarina for the adorable paw prints!
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