Wood-Elves Glovelettes: A Crochet Pattern Inspired by The Hobbit’s Lush Forests and Starlit Skies

In the Wide World the Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon but loved best the stars; and they wandered in the great forests that grew tall in lands that are now lost.

JRR Tolkien; The Hobbit

Notes:

These glovelettes are a combination of a leaf lace pattern and subtle beading. They remind me of the trees and the stars that the woodelves of The Hobbit loved so dearly. The gloves are worked mostly in the round but are worked flat in the middle to create a thumb opening. A shell crochet edging finishes the design.

Supplies:

- 3,5 mm/US4 or 3mm/US2 dpn's - 80 m /90 yards lace weight yarn -36 beads - Thin crochet hook for beading (or thread) - 1,75mm/Us4[steel hook] crochet hook - Blocking board (or: cut a hand-shaped form from sturdy cardboard) Sizing notes: size L fits for hands 18-20cm around (7.25-8 inches) size M fits hands 15-17cm around (6-6.75 inches) different sizes are obtained by needle size/gauge differences fit can be optimized by blocking Gauge: size L: 1 pattern repeat: 3,9cm/1.5 inches on 3.5mm/Us4 needles size M: 1 pattern repeat: 3,25cm/1,25 inches on 3mm/US2 needles Chart key: sl2kp - slip 2 stitches knitwise, k1, pass slipped stitches over yarn over skp - slip 1 st knitwise, k1, pass slipped stitch over (or ssk) B place bead knit on right side , purl on wrong side

Placing beads:

Beads are placed over just knit stitches using the crochet hook method (or if you don't have a crochet hook small enough for your beads you can use thread instead) Knit 1 stitch. Place a bead on a crochet hook (or piece of thread) Lift the just knit stitch off the right hand needle with your crochet hook slide the bead off the hook and onto the stitch replace the stitch onto your right hand needle and continue knitting according to pattern

Instructions: (right glove)

Co 40, join to knit in the round (be careful not to twist your stitches), if your cast on tends to be a little tight you might want to use bigger needles for the cast on Knit 1 round Knit chart 1 once

chart 1

Repeatareahighlightedred3times Grey boxes: on row 10, 12 and 14 knit only 39 stitches, transfer the last stitch to the next needle and use as first stitch for the s2kp

Start knitting flat:

After the last round of chart 1, turn work and purl back to stitch 1 Knit chart 2 once (remember to work flat - purl the wrong side rows)

chart 2

Repeat area highlighted red twice / black squares - no stitch

in the last round of chart 2 rejoin your knitting to work in the round by slipping the last 2 stitches knitwise (marked s in the chart) and lifting them over the first stitch of the round (a skp) - return the stitch to the left hand needle continue working in the round, rearrange stitches on dpn's if necessary k 1 round repeat chart 1 once more, bind off using a stretchy bind off

crochet edging:

with your 1,75mm/Us4[steel hook] crochet hook, crochet a shell edging around the cast off edge: sl st into any bind off stitch, chain 1, sc into the same stitch \*skip 1 bind off stitch, 7 dc into the next bind off stitch skip 1 bind off stitch, sc into the next bind off stitch repeat around from \* weave in all ends and block

left glove:

is worked identically to the right hand glove except that beads are placed on the first two complete leaves instead of the last two. If you decide not to bead your glovelettes simply work the left glove identical to the right. To make it a bit easier, here are the charts for the left glove Work all other rounds as for the right glove only exchange charts

Chart 1 (left glove)

Chart 2 (left glove)

Repeat area highlighted in red only twice