Doodle Gloves

Doodle Gloves by Katya Frankel

What is Being Made

Doodle Gloves are a pair of children's gloves or mittens designed to fit approximately ages 3-4 and up. The pattern offers flexibility in construction, allowing knitters to create either fingered gloves or mittens without fingers. These gloves feature a playful geometric pattern inspired by children's doodling, making them a fun and whimsical accessory for young wearers.

Design Inspiration and Features

The geometric pattern for these gloves draws inspiration from the decorative doodling that children create on their hands. The design cleverly transforms casual hand drawings into a knitted colorwork motif. As a bonus feature, children can wear these patterned gloves for hand decoration without needing to clean off marker afterward, combining practical wearability with imaginative play.

Techniques Used

Doodle Gloves employ several essential knitting techniques suitable for intermediate-level knitters:

• Stranded colorwork: The pattern incorporates multiple colors worked simultaneously, requiring knitters to manage yarn strands across the fabric
• Lice stitch technique: This specialized colorwork method sprinkles single stitches of contrasting color across a background, allowing the crafter to carry contrasting yarn through long stretches while working large, non-repeating color motifs
• Working in the round: The gloves are constructed circularly, requiring proficiency with circular needles or double-pointed needles
• Knitting and purling: Basic stitch work forms the foundation of the construction
• Simple increases and decreases: Shaping techniques are used to fit the glove to the hand

Stitches Used

The lice pattern is worked in the round over a multiple of 4 stitches, with a two-round repeat. Round 1 alternates knit stitches in contrasting color with knit stitches in main color (K1CC, k3MC). Round 2 works two knit stitches in main color, followed by one knit stitch in contrasting color and one knit stitch in main color (K2MC, k1CC, k1MC). This simple two-row repeat creates the scattered doodle effect across the glove surface.

Materials

Doodle Gloves are designed to be worked in 4-ply yarn weight, which provides appropriate drape and warmth for children's gloves while allowing for detailed colorwork definition. The pattern requires at least two colors of yarn—a main color and a contrasting color for the lice stitch pattern. Circular needles or double-pointed needles appropriate for 4-ply yarn are necessary for working the gloves in the round.

Difficulty Level

This pattern is rated as intermediate difficulty, making it suitable for knitters who have mastered basic techniques and are ready to tackle stranded colorwork and the specialized lice stitch method. The combination of working in the round, managing multiple yarn colors, and executing non-repeating motifs requires solid foundational skills and attention to detail.