Now that your cuff ribbing is all done, you are ready to start on the body of the mitten.

If you have been using smaller needles for the cuff, you will need to get out your bigger ones and begin to use those. As you work around the mitten, be sure to put your smaller ones away as you empty each one....it gets interesting later on if you discover you have been knitting with 2 of one size and 2 another.

The first round of the mitten above the ribbing says to: "Next round...(with larger needles).*k 6(8,9) make 1 st* repeating around ending k 2 (0,2): 30 (36,42) sts. "

This is where I get to explain about MAKE ONE or "m1". This is an increase that was dearly loved by our recently departed Elizabeth Zimmerman and it so incredibly useful. One simply takes the yarn that is running from the last stitch worked, and makes a sort of half-hitch BACKWARD loop out of it and puts it on the right needle snug up against the last stitch worked. Neat as you please. If you have to do one of these on a NEW empty-of-stitches needle, simply pull the needle with that "m 1" on it right up against the needle it is next to...sort of tighten the gap as best you can. You will find, in this case, that after you work the NEXT stitch, you can pull any looseness a bit tighter before you proceed.

note: I have prowled the web looking for a picture of MAKE ONE. If anyone can find a clear picture and directions, I would be most appreciative!!!

THEN.....our set up row to begin the gusset reads......."Next round: k1, place marker, k around." So.......do that!

Then " Thumb Gusset Round 1: make 1 st, k to marker, make 1 stitch, slip marker, knit around: 32(38,44) sts. "

Pick up an empty needle... MAKE ONE stitch..... and put it on the EMPTY needle, knit that lonely stitch before the marker from the left needle....then there are no other stitches to knit, so MAKE ONE , again, as per the instructions by making that loop of yarn and placing it on the needle with the other M1 and the knitted stitch...now slip your marker off the left needle and onto the right one and knit across the stitches to the end of that needle.

When you examine what you have done, you should see (from right to left) a MADE STITCH, a Knit stitch, a MADE STITCH, the marker, then all the rest of the stitches are knitted.

" Round 2: k around Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are 11(13, 15) sts on the first needle before the marker. (The ending number of every increase round will be 2 sts greater than the previous round.) 40(48, 56) sts. "

OK.....you will see that you have 3 sts before you see that marker...and if you increase on that needle before you knit the first stitch and right before you come to the marker (then you slip the marker), you will be adding 2 sts each time you work that increase on every ODD round. So your resulting number of sts shall always be an odd number.

Now that you are increasing your gusset stitches every other row, let's take a look at the pattern directions and see where to go from here:

"Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are 11(13, 15)sts on the first needle before the marker. (The ending number of every increase round will be 2 sts greater than the previous round.) 40(48, 56) sts. "

It is critical that you keep track of how many stitches you have so that when you GET to the increased number of needed stitches, you can say.......OK...now I KNIT ONE MORE ROW. That is the final repeat of Round 2 that you will work.



This material ©1999 Claudia Krisniski
Back to the mitten lessons