I am having real problems with this pattern. I am TRYING to knit a pair of very cute mittens for my DD out of Norah Gaughan’s “Knitting Nature” book. The “Target Wave” mittens look very good in the picture, but I have run into several problems in real life.
First, the gauge is not coming out right – the large size should measure 9 1/4 from cuff to tip, and mine is a full inch short of that measure.
Second, the direction to pick up 58 stitches turns out to be WAY too many – there’s some real puckering and rippling going on in the thumb gusset. I will try these again with 52 or perhaps 48 stitches picked up.
Third, the decreases are not regular. The pattern calls for a straight row of knitting (well, purling) after the stitches are picked up, then a decrease row, then THREE rows of straight knitting before another decrease. Anyone whose hands are shaped the way MY mitten came out after following those directions must have the meatiest thumb base ever. We’re talking Guiness Book of World Records large. I think I’ll do a decrease every second row, and shoot for 8 decrease stitches per round to try and keep the gusset flat and lined up with the side of the mitten instead of having it bulge out like the base end of a willy warmer.
Fourth, speaking of willy warmers, the thumb ended up looking like one. A small one, but still. The thumb is NOT supposed to reach to the tip of the mitten under ANY circumstance. Unless, of course, the aforementioned Guiness Book-qualifying hand had TWO abnormalities.
My only conclusion is that the instructions for the large size must have been skipped by the technical editor. The difference between the small and large mitten hands is 6 rows, or one inch (according to gauge. The difference between the small and large thumb is 8 (EIGHT!) rows. Why on earth would the thumb get longer FASTER than the hand as the size goes up?
So I will cut back about 6 rows or so off the length of the thumb, pick up fewer stitches, and decrease more dramatically. I think I’ll also go up a size of needle to see if I can match the row gauge better. Wish me luck!
