Rare books and archives reading rooms are often cold! These fingerless gloves will keep your hands warm while leaving you with the bare fingers required to handle rare page turns like a professional. The colourwork chart is inspired by design elements from Welsh Architect Owen Jones’ monumental work The Grammar of Ornament in the McGill Library’s Rare and Special Collections. A chart is provided for the entire glove, but I encourage everyone to remix and recombine pattern elements to suit your taste!

First published in 1856, Jones’s book is a rich collection of patterns, architectural details, and design elements from around the around. Its many subsequent editions have served as inspiration and education for many a designers since that time. It has been digitized and you can view the full work here. There is inspiration for every kind of project in this work’s pages. Explore the entire book online here, digitized by the team at the McGill Library Digitization Lab: https://mcgill.ca/x/wSo

To learn more about the pattern design process and this extraordinary book, watch the Webinar “Knitting in the Stacks” on YouTube : https://youtu.be/Bhhkl3Nx76Y?si=npkpU5RycANHjr5s

The designer, Jacquelyn Sundberg and colleague Kristen Howard published a paper on the series of knitting events hosted by McGill Libraries from 2021-2023 in RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, & Cultural Heritage in Spring 2024. The article is available open access for all to read here: “Crafting Connections: Bridging Collections & Communities with Knitting“.

In lieu of payment, if you want to show appreciation for the pattern, consider making a gift to McGill Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.

Use the charts for inspiration for other projects, and there are plenty more patterns and motifs to inspire charts of your own in Jones’ Grammar of Ornament. Follow your fancy!

Pattern Details

Finished measurements: Glove circumference after blocking is 7.25“, length(customizable) : 6.25“

Yarn: Two contrasting colours of fingering weight yarn, approximately 200 yards required. The sample is made in Sandnes Garn’s Tynn Peer Gynt and a Rustic Fingering yarn from the Neighbourhood Fibre Co. One skein of each colour can likely make 2 pairs of gloves. One for you, one for your favourite Rare books Librarian or archivist!