The weight gain thing is a tough one to evaluate when you are the only one seeing yourself. I have noticed several key things regarding weight loss or gain or staying the same.
First off, the WAY you row can usually be improved by education and evaluation. See a few posts back where I posted a link to the training calculator. There is some very good info there about becoming more efficient in your rowing. Efficiency comes together when you are able to row farther per stroke, and keep your heart rate under control to be able to row for a longer time.
In both rowing and running I have noticed that I do not usually see much change on the scale, but the more distance I do at any given time at an aerobic heart rate, the more I visually see the fat melting away. If you have more fat to melt away then you won't see as drastic a change, but if you keep at it you will eventually start to see the results in the mirror.
The scale might not change much because muscle is heavier than fat. Rowing aggressively will develop great muscle strength and definition, as well as increase muscle size, but not in an unattractive way. By rowing correctly, efficiently and aggressively you will be cultivating an incredible 8-pack (that's right, not 6 but 8.) You might not see it until you get the abdominal subcutaneous fat melted off, but after a couple of years of rowing well I bet you will be amazed at what you see.
I think that you will begin to see more visual changes as you are able to row around 10,000 per day (in about 45 min. or so) Try setting your damper to between 3 and 5, and row with your stroke rate and pace according to the workout calculator recommendations. This will assure that you are exerting the right amount of effort to see the results you are after. Your heart rate must be bumped up to see the results you are after, like toothdoc said. Just don't try to keep your heart rate too high, or you are getting into the anaerobic zone, and not achieving the weight loss you are wanting- in that case you are working on cardiac stress conditioning- another good area to work on AFTER achieving the weight loss and building up good cardiac fitness as a base.
Again, the scale might not show any changes for awhile as your body changes composition, so don't let that discourage you. Like I said in that previous post, the training calculator and the info I learned from that area really revolutionized my rowing, and made it much more profitable for the time spent on it.
Great idea on the Newgrip gloves...do you have a web link for them?
The team is now over the 8 million meter mark. I say we push hard in these last 12 days to hit the double digit millions. I think we can do it, no problem! Go LUNA-TICS! 
Congrats! Great time! Be sure to add that one to the individual rankings. 
I often row with one hand to drink, wipe sweat off, change TV channels, scratch my nose, and to shake out any numbness in the other hand. To do that I slow down a bit and grip the middle of the bar through the holes. It just comes with practice and seems necessary to me.
