Knitting Newbie; Mittens

[CaseyKinney]

Well, first off hellooooo knitting world! :P I'm new to both the site and knitting itself, so I figured I should introduce myself. My name's Casey, I'm 19 and I started knitting about a month ago. Between going to college for Massage Therapy and working at a fabric store, I've really got nothing to do. Enter knitting, woohoo!

ANYWAY.... my question...
So, I've got the whole "knitting in the round" thing down - I've made three hats so far (much to my surprise- I didn't think any of them would come out! Yay!), and a.. .weird experimental fingerless glove thing I made at 3 in the morning. Which was so haphazardly put together in the first place I can't even remember what the heck I did to get it 'finished'
I'm trying to work on mittens, but I don't understand how to do the thumb! I've asked and asked people at yarn stores... I guess it's really one of those things that you have to see to understand, because they have a very hard time trying to tell me. Especially for me, being a visual learner.
Most of the patterns I've come across for mittens are... very hard for me to understand when it comes to "shaping the thumb" or "forming the thumb gusset"... and I can't for the life of me wrap my mind around what they mean!
Take, for instance, the Lopi Mittens pattern here. It describes how to do the cuff and the body, but then it jumps into shaping the thumb... and I'm sitting here re-reading the darn thing about 20 or so times thinking '...do I just... do that? Or do I have to like...put stitches aside...?'
And then I get insanely frustrated and just knit a scarf. I've got about 13 or so scarves I've done out of my "I'm sick of these freakin' mittens!" rampages.
It's probably something really simple, I realize. But I just can't visualize going diagonal when I'm knitting in the round. It's a tube! How am I going to make a hole in the side of it for a thumb? AAAHHH!!
I just want toasty hands. :pout:
So if anyone can point me in the direction of how to better understand this (youtube holds no answers either! :( ), I, my hands, and the hands of my loved ones would be very grateful!

Thanks!
-Casey

[Eccie]

*edit to add* I shouldn't try to post advice before I fully wake up. Before you put those stictches aside you do need to make the thumb gusset. That simply involves adding a few extra stitches for a few rounds.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, I know that would probably help and I'm sure someone will come along soon with pics, but in the meantime. When you get to the part of the mitten's body where the thumb would begin to branch off, you do indeed set aside a few stitches on a stitch holder (which cane be anything from a fancy one to a pencil) to work later when the body of the mitten is done. The amount of stitches to set aside should be listed in your pattern.

When you're finished with the body of the mitten, just go back, put the set aside stitches on the needles again and you're ready to make your thumb.

It sounds a little weird at first, but it'll work. You'll be amazed :P

[psquidy]

This is totally crazy! Im a RMT in Halifax. Funny that another Therapist would answer your post. I am a self proclaimed mitten master. I turn out a pair a day if i want to. The thumb gusset is really easy so ill try to describe to you how I do it. I dunno what your pattern says.
Here goes
When your all done with the cuff do the following:
Knit one purl one knit three purl one and then knit the rest of the round (k1 p1 k3 p1, k to the end of the round)

Repeat this round two more times ( so u did that round three times once your thru)

Then knit one purl one and include one stitch in the next two stitches (basic increase shown on this site will do fine)

So now you have five stitches inbetween two purl stiches!

Next round knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stiches

Now you knit one purl one and then increase by one in the first stitch and increase again in the last knit stitch before the final purl stitch. So when your done this you now have 7 knit stitches b/t the two purl stitches!

Next round knit the knits and purl the purls.

Repeat the last two rounds increasing in the first and last knit stitches between the two purl stitches then knitting the rest of the round then knitting one round of k the k's and p the p's untill you have 13 stitches (or whatever your pattern says) inbetween the two purl stitches.

When this is all done youll have a sort of fanning out of stitches. Now go get a darning needle thread some waste yarn onto it and put it aside. now knit two stitches (so thatll be the knit and the purl) then use your darning needle to scoop the next 13 stitches KNIT WISE off the needle and onto the waste yarn. Then you just leave them untill your done the rest of the mitt. Now cast on three stitches and continue knitting untill your done your mitt!!!!! And that's all there is to doing a thumb gusset!!! Let me know if you need more help or if any of this doesn't make sense :knitting: :muah:

[Ingrid]

I don't have pictures, but imagine that at the base of your thumb, the mitten gets wider and wider until you have enough stitches for the thumb.
This is the gusset, where you increase on each side of the gusset stitches. It creates a V up to where you have enough stitches for the thumb.
Then you put the thumb stitches on a spare piece of yarn, and when you knit the next round, you close the gap where these stitches were to continue the hand.
After the hand is done, you put the thumb stitches back on some dpns, probably pick up a couple of stitches from the hand and knit in the round in a little tube.

[psquidy]

OH SHOOOOOT! Don't slip them knit wise do it PURL wise. SORRY!!!!