Yellow Rose Mitts from Yarnivore - Day 5

Thumbthing to think about...

Thumbs are important.

They separate us from many other species.  They give one-gesture opinions, they text, they wrestle, they are essential PlayStation equipment, Facebook icons, and way back before Aunt Allie was old enough, an extended one could gain you a form of transportation.

So don’t just rest those digits on the spacebar, show them some respect.

Thumbs in fingerless mitts are rather a one-note samba, a place to show a little style without having to go through the complications of gloves.  I’ve done hand or wrist warmers where the thumbs just peek through a hole in the tube, but I prefer a nicely crafted thumb as in these and these.

Here, our thumbs get a delicately sensible garter trim to finish off the stockinette of the palm and gusset.  Just enough of a detail to compliment the rose motif without competing with it.

What’s extra nice is that they work right off the magic loop.  I was thinking I’d have to cast the thumb tube back on to double-points (not something I was looking forward to), but nope, I’m all set.

Now I just have to finish off the hand and its own  border, and I’m done.  The color continues to charm, and I’m finding all those teeny stitches worth the effort.

Hiawassee Handwarmers from The Needle Nook - Day 5

A happy accident?

Now with the thumb gussets safely tucked away, it was on to the final section of two by two ribbing.  This is always the best place to use continental style, as it creates less of a switch from knit to purl.  Trouble for me is always that my index finger gets cramped from pulling the yarn down in front.  I’m fast knitting, but I still fumble through the purling.

When I mentioned this to a fellow knitter, she suggested I take the working needle over the yarn rather than under it.  It was awkward at first, but definitely faster.  The difficulty came in the subsequent row, where it continually felt as if the purl stitches were mounted backward (and thus more tightly) on the left hand needle.  When I looked at the finished fabric, however, I could see no visible difference in the stitches.

Off the needles, they’re not as snug as I thought—look at how much they expand!

I don’t think the eyelets at the gusset are supposed to be there.  I think I made my “make one”s wrong somehow.  Only I think it’s rather a pretty detail, a happy accident if you will, so I’m okay with it.  We’ll just have to wait and see once the thumbs are finished.

Hiawassee Handwarmers from The Needle Nook - Day 4

Two thumbs up?  Maybe...

I struck a happy compromise, finishing the gusset and moving the stitches to the waste yarn out of my house but at my knitting group.  I took another project with lots of mindless garter stitch to my long committee meetings.  It’s best to know your limitations, right?

I finally tried these on the other day, and was disappointed to discover they are currently a bit too snug and too short.  They are lovely enough that I suspect my daughter will snatch them up in a New York minute, she being in possession of lovely slim young hands and mine being of the pudgy middle-aged variety.  

That’s not a fault of the pattern--more a consequence of the yarn.  I think if I redid the pattern in a heavier weight yarn, I’d come up with just the right size for my substantial hands.  Or, with the half a skein I have left, I might adapt the pattern to size up since I do love the elegance of this weight of yarn.  While I admit to being worried, I’m smart enough to know you can’t really judge a pattern until it’s blocked.

I’m still proud of myself for doing both the right and left thumb gussets simultaneously.  It took a little marking up of the pattern, and a little concentration, but all-in-all not too taxing.  This might bolster my confidence enough to attempt turning two simultaneous sock heels one of these days.  Who knows what hilarity will ensue if I try that!