I have made these several times; the one pictured was my second. The first pair (for my husband) was the same as the original pattern. My hands are smaller, so I made a lot of alterations to adjust the size. I’ve since made several in each size for friends and family.

The pattern is rather sloppily written in places, and I emailed the designer with questions a couple of times. For example, just after the cuff, it says to k3, inc 1 around, for a total of 60 stitches. Given that you start with 48, k3, inc 1 would give you 64, not 60. Janis clarified that by saying she meant increasing by doing a knit through the front and back loop in every 4th stitch -- I was assuming M1 increases. If you do make-one increases, you need to inc 1 after every 4 stitches, not 3.

Another mistake (or at least a section not written very well): At the start of the decreases in the mitten cap, it says, “On each needle, k5, k2tog 52 sts.” Before this round, there are four needles with 14 stitches on each (56 total). To get to 52 stitches, you would need only one decrease per needle (56 - 4 = 52). However, following the rest of the instructions (and doing one increase per needle each increase round), you end up with way more than 4 stitches at the end. After much gnashing of teeth and frogging, I finally figured out that you are actually supposed to do all the decreases twice per needle, which leaves you with 48 stitches after that first round I mentioned above. However, even with that correction you still end up with 8 stitches at the end, not four as written, necessitating one more round of k2tog. I did email the designer about this but got no response.

There were a lot of places -- especially between the fingers -- where there were big holes because of the way the pattern only has you CO 2 stitches at the side of the finger. I left long ends when I picked up the stitches for each finger, and used them to sew the holes shut before weaving in the ends. I also left a long end at the initial cuff cast-on, and used that to sew on the button; I just wove it up to the right spot, sewed the button, and wove in the rest. I hate weaving in ends so I tried to minimize the number there were to weave.

It wasn’t that intuitive (to me) how to reverse the pattern to do the right glove -- and the pattern doesn’t say how to do it. I eventually ended up doing the thumb gusset increases at the beginning of the third needle, reversed from the way the left hand was (i.e., p 2nd st on third needle, and always increase just before that purl rather than just after). Thus, for the right hand, my first two needles were the back of the right hand and the last two were the palm. Everything else was pretty easy to reverse; the tricky part is the thumb gusset increases.

The pattern does not give any measurements for the finished glove. My husband’s pair (done to the original pattern) are 4.5 inches wide across the knuckles, 5 inches wide at the widest point (base of thumb), and 8 inches from cuff to top of middle finger (which is really the first knuckle on that finger since they’re fingerless). My pair are 3.5 inches across the knuckles, 4 inches wide at the base of the thumb, and 6.5 inches from cuff to top of middle finger.

Directions for the alterations I made for my pair, to make it smaller: (Changes are in the same order as the pattern. It’s maybe 3/4 the size of the original pattern, probably a women’s small.)

1. CO 48 for cuff as written; work for 30 rounds. (I used the same needle sizes as on Ray’s pair: 2 for the cuff, 3 for the rest.) I did my original pair with only 25 rounds for the cuff, but I think I like a slightly longer one, so I’d recommend 30 as originally written.

2. After the cuff, do a total of 4 M1 increases -- k12, inc 1 around -- for a total of 52 sts.

3. After cuff increase round - k 3 rounds even instead of 4.

4. Add a total of 9 stitches for the thumb gusset instead of 12.

5. CO 9 stitches after the thumb gusset instead of 11 (one of these gets decreased in a k2tog with the first stitch on the third needle per the original instructions, leaving 8), and omit rounds 1 and 2 of the thumb gusset decrease. Total stitches after decrease should be back to 52. 11 stitches should be on the stitch holder at the thumbhole.

6. K 4 rounds after the thumb gusset decrease instead of 6.

7. Pinky: Pick up 6 sts from the palm and 7 from the back, plus the co 1 on ring finger side. Work for 8 rounds. After the pinky, k 3 rounds around the hand instead of four.

8. Ring finger: Pick up 7 from the palm and 6 from the back, plus 2 picked up from side of pinky, and work 8 rounds.

9. Middle finger: Pick up 6 palm and 7 back, plus 2 from side of ring finger; k for 12 rounds.

10. Index finger: Pick up remaining stitches plus 2 from the middle-finger side; k for 12 rounds.

11. Thumb: Pick up 9 stitches instead of 12 from around thumbhole, for a total of 20 including the ones from the holder. Distribute them on 3 needles, with 7 sts on the first, 6 on the second, 7 on the third. (The first needle should contain 7 of the 9 sts just picked up and the last should have the ones from the stitch holder.) K first needle; on the second needle ssk, k2, k2tog; k third needle. K next round even, then k first and third needle, and ssk, k2tog on second. You should now have 16 stitches total. Redistribute stitches evenly on needles and k to length of base of thumbnail (13-15 rounds; I did 13).

12. Thumb decrease: omit first two rounds and work rest as written.

13. Mitten shell: co 26 instead of 30. Work 9 rows of cuff as directed.

14. Pick up 26 sts across back of hand, distribute stitches on 4 needles with 13 sts per needle, and work 17 rounds. Work first decrease (k to last 2 sts of each needle, k2tog around) as directed (48 sts remaining, 12/needle). Work 5 rounds even.

15. Omit this (first 2 lines/6 rounds of final decrease section): “k5, k2tog on each needle; k 5 rounds even.” Work all other decreases as written, adding an extra k2tog around at the end (see notes, above), and work I-cord as written. Presto, it’s done!