Top-down lace-up mittens

When I first saw Ysolda Teague's lace-up opera gloves, I loved them. They are quirky and original and all those things I love. However, they were missing something: fingers! Much as I love gloves, I find fingerless gloves never sit where they have to in my hands. So I decided to knit an alternative version, with half-fingers. Of course this meant knitting them top-down, since I can no longer bring myself to knit fingers at the end of knitting a glove. So I had a look at the pictures of a lot of versions of Ysolda's gloves, and figured out a way to knit them the other way around! The gloves on the photographs are knitted with yarns by Handarbeitskram (http://www.handarbeitskram.com). These colourways were part of the True Blood Sock Club that ran from July to September 2010. Pattern provides three sizes: Small, [Medium, Large].