Lacy Leaves

Learn to knit with beads. Beads add a fabulous touch to these Lacy Leaf Fingerless Gloves. When you add beads to a lacy stitch pattern, you turn a lovely accessory into drop-dead gorgeous knitted jewels. Make a pair for yourself, and whenever you wear them, people will compliment you and ask you where you found such beautiful gloves! And if you're stumped for what to get the teenage girl or woman in your life who has everything, you can't go wrong whipping up a pair of these gloves in her favorite color.

Not only will you learn how to make these gorgeous gloves, but this workshop will teach you how to knit with beads, work an unusual Estonian leaf pattern that is created by combining yarn overs and decreases, and work twisted stitch ribbing. Other techniques covered include the long-tail cast on, reading charts, and shaping a thumb gore in pattern.

If you are a beginner and have never knitted in the round before, you will learn how to knit in the round on double-pointed needles. If you already know how to knit on 2 circulars or on 1 long circular using magic loop, you can use one of those techniques as well.

The gloves are knitted in the round starting at the cuff. After casting on stitches, you work a short cuff in twisted ribbing, which creates a sharp but stretchy pattern. The hand is worked in the lacy leaf stitch with beads, following a charted pattern. Two extra panels are added to make room for the thumb, and the fingers and thumb are both finished off with twisted stitch ribbing to match the cuff.

All instructions are coupled with a photo tutorial making it easy to follow along at your own speed. If you have any questions along the way, I'm here to help! Post questions, comments, and photos of your work to share with me and your fellow students.