Hello,

I am knitting Bella's Mittens from the pattern at:

http://homepage.mac.com/subliminalrabbit/bellasmittens_pattern.pdf

The pattern is excellent and clear, but I have one place where I have a problem:

In Row 38, I have 33 stitches split on a circular needle in the magic loop method. So far so good. In Row 39, I followed the pattern:

[p1, k1] x9, p2tog, 6-st LC, 6-st RC, purl last and first stitch together (31 stitches)

I was doing fine through the last instruction (purl last and first stitch together). Stitch 33 is the "last" in that sequence. Where am I getting the "first" stitch from, the next row? I did that, but I only seem to have 30 stitches on my needles now. I am sure I have not dropped any.

I can't figure this out, and it's making me nuts!

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Alex

As long as I'm at it, I can see that the next row is going to give me trouble as well:

Row 40: The next stitch is now your first stitch. [k1, p1] x9, k12, p1

I assume that means that the last p2tog from the last row is actually my first purl stitch of this row, thus the pattern change from [p1, k1] to [k1, p1]. Again, though, I only have 30 stitches on the needle. What is going on here?

Alex

You can move a st from one needle to the other to do a dec; you don't need to have exactly half the sts on one and half on the other. It sounds as though you're shifting the beg of round over one st by knitting the last one together with the first one. Patterns sometimes do that.

I don't know why you're missing a stitch, maybe you lost it on a previous row. Recount them and if you don't find it, maybe skip the last p2tog, though that may leave you with 2 purls next to each other. Or one st off may not make a difference.

Sue,

I think I figured it out. I was not only borrowing the first stitch from the next row, but going ahead with the entire next row (just a function of me getting confused on my circulars). Of course, in figuring that out, I dropped five stitches, and managed to unravel them four rows deep. Aaarrgggh. Just sorted it out. Hope the messy loose stitches will blend when I am done. I do not want to rip out all those rows.

Thanks for your help.

Alex

Yeah the messy sts will even out when you wash them.