Yeah I use the nitrile-dipped gloves, cheap, and have yet to ruin a pair since getting them, and sticky! I like the grip of them. I should add some standard lab nitriles to my kit in case i ever need them. I would never use latex, as I'm allergic. Jon - might want to keep that in mind especially if you have them as first aid backup (which I assume as you say they are in sterile packaging) - person might be allergic, which isn't that uncommon at least around here.
For rappelling I found gardening gloves with leather palms for $12. Cheaper than fancy rappelling gloves, but actually fit my small hands for the mostpart, which is very handy to not have an inch plus of loose fabric at fingertips!
If you want to try making the gloves as you say, I had great luck with this person on ebay:
http://stores.ebay.com/Textile-Specialist-Direct?_rdc=1 it's $7/yrd for the 1000d cordura, I think $6/yrd for a lower d which she does have a few colors of at times. They carry ballistic (1650d or something like that) as well I think that is $10/yrd or such though. It's "buy it now" the quantity is the number of yards. ~7 yards fits into the priorty flat rate medium so that's $10 or such for shipping, and they'll combine if you want different colours. Message 'em if you want something not listed, I was able to get bright green by asking as they had 3 yrds on an end of a roll somewhere I was able to get.
Probably would want lower d for gloves so it's less stiff? I'm working on my oversuit project still, I will likely have some pink (don't let the "Violet" fool you, it's magenta, some of their photos are a bit off colour-wise which is my only complaint) and green 1000d left over if you want scraps.