Firstfall convertible mitts: I haz a confused

[meretia]

I've been working on the Firstfall mittens for a while, and I don't get how I'm supposed to make the flap that forms the top of the mitten. The pattern had me slipping the first and last stitches of the non-cabled part of the glove every other round for the last couple repeats of the cable pattern. Now I'm working the cable panel flat and I'm supposed to "pick up a stitch from the mitt, and knit it together with a live stitch on the needle" at the beginning of each row, and there's a note in the section on making the hand that "You are creating two columns of slipped stitches which you will pick up and knit later for the flap, which makes me think I'm supposed to be picking up the stitches that I was slipping when I was making the hand.

But... the stitches I slipped are below the live stitches. The first slipped stitches are considerably below. I can't figure out how I'm supposed to pick them up. I mean, it seems like I'd eventually have to practically fold the hand flap in half to reach them, but then how would I attach the sides? I'm to the point where I just got frustrated and started on the other one since I know how to do that part.




Also it's purely shallow, but does the garter stitch section in the palms serve any purpose? I like the look of the k2 p1 pattern around the cuff better than the garter stitch, which doesn't seem to do much in the finished projects I've looked at on Rav other than look kind of odd in between the cable and the cuff. If it's not going to change anything important, I'm of a mind to pull it all out and do it over without the garter palms.

Comments

This is a guess, but --

[chalcopyrite]

I suspect they want you to pick up the slipped stitches in reverse order -- that is, if you slipped stitches on rows 1-10, you pick up the slipped stitch in 10 first -- and work your way "backwards" relative to the direction you were heading before. Working the slipped stitch with a live stitch at the start of the row will join that together.

But that seems like it's going to make a lot of overlap, and not make very fold-back-able flaps... hmmm.

ETA: Looking at the link, that's what happens. If you look at the purple pair, you can just about see how the cable continues over the top, and on the grey pair, the cable is working towards the wrist when the flap is over the fingers. The flap turns inside-out rather than just flipping back to uncover your fingers. If you're thinking of ripping it and re-doing with different palms, you could try it out on this mitt to see if it works.