Monday, June 29, 2009

Mitten Tutorial - Step 4

Is everyone still with me?
I thought I'd give you a few days to complete step 3.

Step 4:

After you have 44 total stitches your mitten should look like this


And you just finished a knit row.


Next Purl Row - Purl 29 sts and turn. Don't purl past the marker.


This is what it looks like after you turn


Now you are ready to knit the thumb.

Thumb: Edited July 4th - changed # of rows to 12

Knit 13 sts, marking this row as row 1 and knit 12 total rows on these 13 sts.


This is the beginning of the thumb part with a marker.


Any questions?

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Mitten Tutorial - Step 3

Now we will begin the left thumb gusset

Row 1: Knit 4, M1 (make one), PM (place a marker), knit to end of row.

Above picture shows how I M1 (make 1). I lift the stitch with the left needle and knit into the back of it so as not to leave a hole.

Knitting in the front and back of the stitch to increase does not work - it does not leave a smooth increase line and does not look quite as nice.


Above picture is the first row knit to the end with the marker in position.
You can see I have 5 sts at the right because I M1 and 29 sts on the left.

Row 2: Purl to marker, slip marker and m1.

To make one on the purl side, lift the stitch as above and


come in from behind to purl this stitch. We don't knit it because we do not want any purl bumps on the right side. It's a wee bit tricky but there are only a few more rows of this type of increase.

Rows 3-11: Repeat last 2 rows 4 times more.
Keep increasing every row until 44 (50) total stitches

You should end up with 15 sts on the right side of the marker and 29 sts on the left side.



Let me know if you get stuck anywhere and I'll see if I can better explain.
Or if I miscalculated the row counts.
Mostly it is the number of stitches at the end that matter.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Mitten Tutorial - Step 2

Step 2 is easy, but first I have to clarify some questions.

We will be using the same size needles for knitting the whole mitten.

I also forgot to mention that due to the shaping of this gusset we will be making a left and a right mitten.

We are working on the LEFT mitten for now.

So on to Step 2

Knit 4 rows in Stockinette stitch, but INCREASE by 1 st in the first row.
you will now have 33 sts on the needle.

Update for "Here is an example on Maggie's Rags Site.

Thanks for asking this question Kittie!


I increased in the center. This is the section that one may knit more rows if they like longer mittens but since these are for children we will keep it at 4 rows.

See I told you Step 2 was easy!

Tomorrow Step 3.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Mitten Tutorial - Step 1

Are you ready? Well here goes - my very first mitten tutorial!

We'll be working on just the small size for now - I'll add the next size up on the actual pattern.

Step 1

Cast on 32 sts and knit in rib of your choice for 3 1/4"



I like 2x2 rib, so I used that - does not matter what you choose.
3 1/4" for me worked out to about 22 rows.

Tomorrow I'll post the next step.

Can't think of a name for this pattern - they're nameless right now!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mitten Time

Okay, so I'm on a roll of mitten knitting!

Pairs 13, 14 & 15


The lovely blue yarn is Ironstone Multi 95% Wool 5% Polyester
These are worked on double points in the round.


Pairs 16, 17 & 18


Same Ironstone yarn here but these are knit on 2 needles.

Mitten Tutorial

I'll be posting a step by step little tutorial on how to knit these mittens with the "Indian thumb gusset " on 2 needles.

What you need is worsted wt yarn - light or medium wt worsted will work.
I think a little over 100 yds will work as I was able to squeeze out 3 pairs from one ball of Ironstone.

My gauge was 5 sts to 1 inch - use whatever needles give you that gauge.
Yes you should knit up a swatch, unless you already know your gauge with worsteds. I do ;)

I'll post step 1 tomorrow and after I'm done with all the steps I'll be posting the pattern over on my pattern blog.

And for those of you who hate to seam and would rather make your mittens in the round - stay tuned for that pattern.