Loving those thumbs

.
A little while back, I told Thomas that I would make him some simple thrash-around-the-house fingerless mitts that he could wear to keep his hands warm when he's in his cold apartment. I thought I'd do something as simple as my very first attempt at fingerless mitts, a simple tube with a thumb hole. Quick and easy, except for a little more guess work to make it fit a man's larger hand.

Then I made my second mitts ever, which had a thumb gusset, but no wrap around thumb section. For my third mitts, I decided to make an attempt at making a wrap around thumb section. And I liked the results! I liked the results so much that I've decided that having the wrap around thumb is well worth re-attaching yarn and having to weave in 4 loose ends later on. I went back and updated my second mitts to have the wrap around thumb like the third mitt.

So back to this mitt I'm making for Thomas. I'm still starting out with the Warm Hands Fingerless Mitts I made last month, except I will add a wrap around thumb. This mitt is different from Persephone or Regina (which both had stockinette gussets) in that I wanted to maintain the K2P2 ribbing in the thumb gusset. It took me several tries before I could get the thumb gusset increases correct and exactly where and how I wanted it ... ok, maybe not exactly, but to a point where they were acceptable to me. In the photo below, you can see it is essentially K2P2 ribbing there. At first I thought I would increase to 8 stitches. When I got to that point I realized that this would not be enough. So back to scribbling in my notes and then knitted up to 12 stitches. I liked how it turned out at 12 stitches so this is where I stopped to slip the stitches onto waste yarn (recognize the yarn from CBM's scarf?). I plan on picking up 4 stitches later to make an even 16 so that I can continue the K2P2 ribbing around the thumb.

The top photo above shows what I have knit so far. If the mitt were for myself, I would go ahead and bind off there since it looks long enough for my hands. However when I slipped this over DH's hand, it was clearly on the short side and could use another 10 or so more rounds. So there is a difference in length when knitting mitts for a man vs a woman. It shouldn't take me too long to knit another 10-ish rounds and then work the thumb section.

Yes, this is the same yarn as the other mitt I made. Elann Highland Wool in Ruby Red. The red is the same yarn I used in his Jayne Cobb Hat. Anyhow, I hope to have these mitts finished by Friday when we will meet for dim sum lunch.

--<>--

It's American Idol season again and the Top 12 guys got to sing tonight. Unfortunately I only had time to watch the first hour, and will try to watch the second hour tomorrow night. Good thing I've got Tivo. :-) Anyhow, so far my fave is David Archuleta. We'll see what I think after watching the second half of the show. Of course by then it'll be too late to vote, which is usually the case with me and American Idol. I'm always watching it a day or two behind everyone else.


.