And Another Mitten

A long time ago (well, probably just late last summer), my daughter decided she wanted to knit something for herself...mittens...I had a sideways knit, garter stitch pattern in an old Mon Tricot book, but the details were a bit lacking.  She picked out Easy Knits "Georga Wool" which I had gotten at Wal-Mart.  It says it's "mercerized" which is not a term used with wool. I think it's to indicate that this might be treated to be superwash, but the icons show hand washing.  There is a website but this isn't on it (BTW, the "DeLuxe" feels awful).    The gauge on the ball band says 18st/24rows on 5.5mm.  There is NO way this yarns knits to that gauge...remember Mission Falls 1824?  This is like, half the thickness.   Meg used 3.75mm needles!  I wrote the pattern out for Megan, row by row so she'd have an easier time marking where she was.  

She did really well for awhile.  Then winter passed and the allure of wool mittens waned.  She did pick it up now and then, but I did end up finishing the second mitten.  I had to alter the original pattern a fair bit to fit her and the wool, but they are so cozy and fit well.

I admit to being a bit of a garter stitch snob.  The only people who like garter stitch are either beginners who don't know the purl stitch, or people who use only fancy yarns so they don't have to do the purl stitch and make an interesting fabric for a plain yarn.  Right?  Sally Melville's "The Knitting Experience, Book 1:  The Knit Stitch" and Elizabeth Zimmerman's "BSJ" are the two exceptions.  And, I did knit an "Einstein Jacket" for myself and ended up feeling like a marshmallow (do you really need the link for that post? LOL).  I knew the knit stitch was enough for Megan and the sideways knitting added just enough construction interest for me.  There's not a lot of options on Ravelry for garter stitch mittens, and TO ME, most of them are not pleasing (or were the wrong size, wrong yarn, or too difficult for Megan).  Oh look...there's two pairs by Elizabeth Zimmerman...one of which is sideways...click on one of them, you'll see her sideways gloves...which are very similar.  I wonder if I have a pattern for them in one of the old Vogue magazines...

I started the mittens with waste yarn so that I could graft the start and end together; same thing on the thumbs.  But I kept thinking there's no reason to stop at the tip and knit back....imagine this.  You're starting at the outside edge of the hand, knitting from wrist to tip, up and down.  Then you get to the thumb, and these ones have a side placed thumb, WITH a gusset made by short rows.  You know I love me a side placed thumb with a nice gusset!  Then you knit the palm side of the hand, wrist to tip on each row...end at the edge and graft, then sew the top!
I finished this pair as the original pattern indicated, but the tops bugged me.  Surely you could knit from wrist to tip, shape, then continue over the top to the other side and down to the wrist....

I'll post the results of that experiment later as I still have to finish the second one.  Would anyone be interested in a well fitting, garter stitch mitten pattern, with NO grafting, no sewing?

Yarn In:  3017gr
Yarn Out:  100gr + 4791gr = 4891gr
Balance:  1874gr more used UP than brought in
Costs:  $145.08 /252 days = $0.58/day