Mitt-A-Long: Working a thumb
If you have read the schedule you would realise today's blog post was supposed to be about Mitt Knitting Q & A. But after one of my lovely Mitt-A-Long pointed out, that she wanted to see a video of a thumb being worked I realised I should do this sooner rather than later. I would hate to think I was holding someone up!
There are two processes involved in knitting the thumb. First you place the waste yarn into the main part of the Mitt, then second you return to the waste yarn, remove it and pick up the stitches to knit the thumb.
Right so you have worked up to the point where its time to knit your thumb waste yarn:
Let go of the working yarn, and replace it with the waste yarn.
Knit the required stitches in waste yarn, let go of the waste yarn.
Slip these waste yarn stitches back onto the Left Hand Needle.
Pick up the working yarn, and knit the waste yarn stitches, then just keep on going to finish the main part of the knit.
Once that's done, return to the waste yarn stitches, to knit the thumb:
Remove the waste yarn picking up the stitches. Take your time as this is trickier than it sounds, and there will be one more stitch on the top than there is on the bottom.
I like to get my stitches facing the right direction at this point, so do that if you need to.
Spread the stitches over your dpns or circular needle (for magic loop method see previous post).
Knit around as you did for the main part of the Mitt.
Bind off all stitches once the desired length has been knit.
Grab a tapestry needle and secure the ends of the yarn, closing the holes that happen at the base of the thumb.
Be sure to watch the video as this is one of those things that you need to see to understand I think. If there is anything I missed or you couldn't see, let me know in the comments below.
I'm loving seeing all of your Vanilla & Spice Mitts pop up on instagram, #vanillaspicemittalong and on Ravelry in our Mitt-A-Long forum, thank you for sharing your gorgeous work.
Click here to go to my pattern page so you can buy the yarn, needles and pattern, if you haven't cast on already!
The sample in this blog post is knit with West Yorkshire Spinners DK solids, Sage Green colourway, click this link to buy it.