Mitten Question

hesira wrote:
On Mar 23, 12:57 pm, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
On Mar 23, 10:36 am, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
Hi All,
I'm new at mitten making, and am having trouble following the
pattern. I was wondering if any of you could help.
I'm at the place where I need to make the opening for the thumb, and
the instructions read:
Knit 1, place 10 stitches on waste yarn or safety pin. Knit through
the rest of the round. Next round, k1, cast on 10...
If I do as instructed, I will have to carry my working yarn across the
10 stitches of waste yarn, in order to continue the round. Won't that
long float be a problem inside the thumb?
What's up with this?
I would knit the 10 sts first, then put them on a holder.
sue
Thanks, Sue. I ended up doing as you say: I knitted the 10 stitches
with scrap yarn and put them back on the left needle, and continued in
the pattern. I don't intend to cast on the 10 stitches on the next
round. When I finish the hand, I'll cut the scrap yarn and put those
stitches on dpns and make the thumb. I made one mitten before using
the method I just described from a different pattern.
Yes, that's a good alternative - you don't have to do the CO sts that
way, your waste yarn is both a stitch holder and a CO.

I still don't understand how I could do the thumb as instructed in
this pattern. If you put the stitches on a holder, you have to carry
a long float across those stitches.
Some patterns are poorly written; in this case it probably should have
been written as knitting the 10 sts, THEN putting them on a holder. Some
pattern writers actually do that in practice, but assume knitters will
do the same, so they don't put it in that way.

sue

That could be too. Some of the hardest patterns to figure out are the
Drops at garnstudio.com; I think they're translated from swedish or
norse, and the english versions are doozies to understand sometimes. But
the items are very nice and well worth struggling to understand the pattern.

sue

On Mar 24, 12:10*am, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
On Mar 23, 12:57 pm, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
On Mar 23, 10:36 am, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
Hi All,
I'm new at mitten making, and am having trouble following the
pattern. *I was wondering if any of you could help.
I'm at the place where I need to make the opening for the thumb, and
the instructions read:
Knit 1, place 10 stitches on waste yarn or safety pin. *Knit through
the rest of the round. *Next round, k1, cast on 10...
If I do as instructed, I will have to carry my working yarn across the
10 stitches of waste yarn, in order to continue the round. *Won't that
long float be a problem inside the thumb?
What's up with this?
I would knit the 10 sts first, then put them on a holder.
sue
Thanks, Sue. *I ended up doing as you say: *I knitted the 10 stitches
with scrap yarn and put them back on the left needle, and continued in
the pattern. *I don't intend to cast on the 10 stitches on the next
round. *When I finish the hand, I'll cut the scrap yarn and put those
stitches on dpns and make the thumb. *I made one mitten before using
the method I just described from a different pattern.
Yes, that's a good alternative - you don't have to do the CO sts that
way, your waste yarn is both a stitch holder and a CO.

I still don't understand how I could do the thumb as instructed in
this pattern. *If you put the stitches on a holder, you have to carry
a long float across those stitches.
Some patterns are poorly written; in this case it probably should have
been written as knitting the 10 sts, THEN putting them on a holder. Some
pattern writers actually do that in practice, but assume knitters will
do the same, so they don't put it in that way.

sue

That could be too. Some of the hardest patterns to figure out are the
Drops at garnstudio.com; I think they're translated from swedish or
norse, and the english versions are doozies to understand sometimes. But
the items are very nice and well worth struggling to understand the pattern.

hesira wrote:
On Mar 24, 12:10 am, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
On Mar 23, 12:57 pm, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
On Mar 23, 10:36 am, suzee wrote:
hesira wrote:
Hi All,
I'm new at mitten making, and am having trouble following the
pattern. I was wondering if any of you could help.
I'm at the place where I need to make the opening for the thumb, and
the instructions read:
Knit 1, place 10 stitches on waste yarn or safety pin. Knit through
the rest of the round. Next round, k1, cast on 10...
If I do as instructed, I will have to carry my working yarn across the
10 stitches of waste yarn, in order to continue the round. Won't that
long float be a problem inside the thumb?
What's up with this?
I would knit the 10 sts first, then put them on a holder.
sue
Thanks, Sue. I ended up doing as you say: I knitted the 10 stitches
with scrap yarn and put them back on the left needle, and continued in
the pattern. I don't intend to cast on the 10 stitches on the next
round. When I finish the hand, I'll cut the scrap yarn and put those
stitches on dpns and make the thumb. I made one mitten before using
the method I just described from a different pattern.
Yes, that's a good alternative - you don't have to do the CO sts that
way, your waste yarn is both a stitch holder and a CO.
I still don't understand how I could do the thumb as instructed in
this pattern. If you put the stitches on a holder, you have to carry
a long float across those stitches.
Some patterns are poorly written; in this case it probably should have
been written as knitting the 10 sts, THEN putting them on a holder. Some
pattern writers actually do that in practice, but assume knitters will
do the same, so they don't put it in that way.
sue
That could be too. Some of the hardest patterns to figure out are the
Drops at garnstudio.com; I think they're translated from swedish or
norse, and the english versions are doozies to understand sometimes. But
the items are very nice and well worth struggling to understand the pattern.

sue

I know what you mean. I've eyed those Drops patterns, but rejected
them after reading through the text. One of these days I'll decipher
one and see what happens.

They've now started putting some in American english terms, which helps
if you're not familiar with British terms. But go ahead and start one,
there's lots of help available here and on other forums.

sue

Hesira,

I see you've already found a work-around for this. But since you are still
curious about the original intention of the pattern...I wonder if you're
meant to pull the yarn you're calling the "float" taut across the stitches
that have been set aside. So, it's not really a float. It would work
better with the stitches being on a piece of waste yarn rather than a stitch
holder since you've be able to bend the fabric to really pull the yarn
across tightly. Am I making any sense? Do the instructions have you
picking up stitches for part of the thumb later on?

It's been a while since I've done any mittens but I seem to remember the
pattern I did being similar.

LauraJ

"hesira" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

I'm new at mitten making, and am having trouble following the
pattern. I was wondering if any of you could help.

I'm at the place where I need to make the opening for the thumb, and
the instructions read:

Knit 1, place 10 stitches on waste yarn or safety pin. Knit through
the rest of the round. Next round, k1, cast on 10...

If I do as instructed, I will have to carry my working yarn across the
10 stitches of waste yarn, in order to continue the round. Won't that
long float be a problem inside the thumb?

What's up with this?

Hesira

On Mar 24, 1:23*pm, "LauraJ" wrote:
Hesira,

I see you've already found a work-around for this. *But since you are still
curious about the original intention of the pattern...I wonder if you're
meant to pull the yarn you're calling the "float" taut across the stitches
that have been set aside. *So, it's not really a float. *It would work
better with the stitches being on a piece of waste yarn rather than a stitch
holder since you've be able to bend the fabric to really pull the yarn
across tightly. *Am I making any sense? *Do the instructions have you
picking up stitches for part of the thumb later on?

It's been a while since I've done any mittens but I seem to remember the
pattern I did being similar.

LauraJ


Laura,

I considered that, but I was confused by what would happen with the 10
cast on stitches. The way I visualized it was: I pull the thread
tightly, knit around, get back to the point where the stitches were on
scrap yarn and then cast on 10. Do these 10 CO stitches go towards
the body of the mitten, or the thumb? I probably should just do a
sample swatch and see what happens, but as I said, I used a different
method for making the thumb, and continued.

I appreciate the help, though.

Hesira

hesira wrote:

scrap yarn and then cast on 10. Do these 10 CO stitches go towards
the body of the mitten, or the thumb?

They would be for the mitten hand.

sue