Hand Knit Gloves - Motif Placement

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-sylvia-dering-infinity-scarf-and-gloves

An interesting question came up recently about glove design. I've knit many pairs of gloves for myself. I frequently work with the yarn leftover from other projects. I haven't published very many glove patterns, mainly because I hear knitters find them too fussy to knit. I do teach a class on how to knit gloves and the question that came up was about pattern placement. 

A student brought a pattern with her that had a single motif on the back of the hand. Her question was why was it not centered?  The answer is that the motif can be centered in one of two different ways. The first method centers the motif across the total number of stitches between the side of the baby finger and the side of the index finger. That total is normally 1/2 of the total number of palm stitches excluding the thumb gusset. This method seems to be the one most often used. The second method is to center by measurement. The baby finger is smaller than the others which shifts the center of the back of the hand over slightly. In my case the mid-point is just off to the outside of the tendon (baby finger side) that runs down my middle finger. Some glove designers choose to center motifs this way instead of by stitch count. I personally find this measurement method looks more correct to my eye when using a single motif but I know many knitters who would disagree with me. When the pattern used is not a single motif the centering of pattern works best across the total number of stitches. It's often difficult to assess which method has been used in the pattern photos unless there is one taken with the glove laid flat. If you would like to see and compare a lot of glove variations you can check out this search in Ravelry

If you would like to read more about knitting gloves and learn about the various tips I share with students, I have a 5 part series with links listed below:


Part 1 can be found here. 
Part 2 can be found here.  
Part 3 can be found here.  
Part 4 can be found here.   
Part 5 can be found here.  

If you enjoy reading my blog, I'd really appreciate it if you would tell your knitting friends or share links to your favourite posts online with Twitter, Ravelry or Facebook. Word of mouth is really helping to grow my business as knitters respect the views of other members of our community. Thanks!