I wasn’t super impressed by the pattern. I prefer knitting from charts, but do expect there to be at least a minimal amount of text to go along with (i.e. cast on x number of stitches, increase so many after the first band).

I liked alison827’s idea of adding in thumb gussets, since mittens do fit better that way, so I cast on 56 sts, worked about 2” of rib, then began the CC band, omitting a repeat. I still increased 4 stitches between the CC band and the main pattern, then increased the gusset from 5 stitches to the full 13 while knitting the main pattern.

I also continued the CC edging to the top in both the hand and the thumb, because I thought it would look quite odd to do otherwise. I grafted the top of the hand, but just gathered the last stitches on the thumb.