Yarn for fingerless gloves

[meretia]

Sooo, long story short, one of my friends tried to adapt a pattern to basically an entirely new pattern to make his husband some fingerless gloves for their six-month anniversary in August. It proved to be too hard for him, so I said fine, give it here, I'll do it for you as my present.

Now, oh, if I don't try to complicate things too much, I'm designing a pair of gloves he might have for his husband's birthday present in November.

I started with Qina, Mirasol's 80% baby alpaca/20% bamboo blend, since that was what I thought would most appeal to the dude the gloves are for when I was basically told "nice yarn" when I asked what kind of yarn I should get for them. It does knit up pretty nicely. However, I also just found a skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino (I forget exactly the percentages, but I think it's about half and half silk and merino) that I bought a while ago because hey, cheap Malabrigo! and misplaced. I'm only on the cuff of the first glove for the second or third time, but now I'm sort of tempted to start it over again in the Malabrigo because it's nice yarn and the guys deserve something swank for being made to wait so long. But the guy who's getting the gloves isn't a knitter, so he wouldn't necessarily know about the Ooo look, I maded you a Malabrigo! cachet, and I almost don't notice a difference between the two when I close my eyes and pet them. If anything, I think the Qina's a little softer.

So okay, all other things more or less equal--I can get more of either if I need it, I don't think he'd be unhappy with either color--does one yarn or the other seem more suited for what's basically a pair of gloves (minus the last joint or so of the fingers) in star or daisy stitch?

Comments

[kath_ballantyne]

I'd stick with the alpaca and bamboo. If it feels as nice that's what matters really isn't it.
Warm, soft and I think bamboo is antibacterial. Pretty good things for gloves.

[owlectomy]

I have to say, the one pair of alpaca fingerless gloves I have, I don't wear -- alpaca is so insulating and my hands get really hot. I just finished a pair in a silk/wool blend and it is *excellent.*

That said, alpaca is lovely and soft and I don't know that it would be worth it to start all over again.

[untonuggan]

You are almost done, finish them! That's my first instinct.

That said, the nice thing about wool is that it's weather resistant without being overly warm. So if, say, your friend does a lot of bicycling or something then wool gloves are something that ze could wear cycling.

Re: warmth and alpaca, if you live somewhere realllly cold then that's probably not an issue. And, srsly, I live in the DC Metro area and have on occasion worn alpaca fingerless gloves because it gets cold enough here for me to want them. So, YMMV, but that's one gauge (no pun intended) of coldness needed for alpaca to be worth it.