the other night my friend kyran texted me this picture with the text “why is this happening?”

this is a problem with almost all gloves, mittens, and fingerless mitts. you get to the thumb. you pick up the required number of stitches according to the pattern and you still get holes on either side of the thumb.

what’s a knitter to do? add more stitches!

let me explain!

as you can see in the instructions above, the designer has 15 stitches from the gusset and tells the knitter to “pick up 4 sts along the gaps” for a total of 19 stitches.

well first of all pick up more stitches then the pattern calls for. it seems that most patterns with thumbs call for 4 stitches to be picked up and knitted once the thumb gusset is finished and you are ready to start the thumb.

but i recommend picking up and knitting at least 2 more stitches in this area. so if the pattern says to pick up 4 stitches, pick up 6. but make sure that your final number count is odd or even just like the designer called for. don’t add a odd number of stitches if you’re total number of stitches is supposed to be odd in the end. and vice versa!

and yes i know you have to get rid of them. to get rid of the extras just simply knit an extra row to decrease them away (especially if you have a longer than normal thumb) or do it all in one row and make sure you have the right stitch count in the end.

and don’t forget to tighten on that 2nd stitch!

happy knitting!

h.