New knitter with question

How-to Questions
1

[FONT=“Comic Sans MS”]I’m currently taking a mitten class and am knitting in the round (1st time). I’ve reached a point and I’m stuck and was wondering if anyone could help me.

I’m at the point where I’m ready to create the thumb opening and the pattern states: “Place the first 6 stiches of the round on a holder, turn your work and cast on 6 stiches to replace the ones placed on holder.”

My questions are :
#1 what does it mean to “turn your work”?

#2 Am I casting on the 6 new stiches to the same needle that I took off the 6 stiches?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance [/FONT]

2

  1. Turn it around as if you were at the end of a row, like flat knitting.

  2. Cast on the new stitches where the yarn is, so yes that would be the same needle.

3

[FONT=Comic Sans MS] My questions are :
#1 what does it mean to “turn your work”?[/FONT]

Pretend you are knitting flat (not in the round) turn the work so the purl side shows…

(this is done becase you need to cast on… and to cast on you’ll need to work this way (advanced knitters can cast on backwards… but for a beginner, turning the work is WAY easier!)

[FONT=Comic Sans MS] #2 Am I casting on the 6 new stiches to the same needle that I took off the 6 stiches?[/FONT]

yup!

look down on your knitting you see a sort of square (or triangular!) circle… (one big O–a tube of knitting)–the hand.

but to make space for the thumb you need a sort of 8 shape. One big O hand, and one small o to make the thumb.

the stitches on the holder are half of the thumb, the 6 you cast on, are the other half…

For 1 round…they are ‘connected’ and make sort of figure 8 (but more like a snowman shape…one big O connected to a small o.

you’ll leave the 6 stitches for the thumb alone for a while, then after the hand is finished, you’ll knit the second o and make a tube for the thumb.

NEXT–about casting on…

you’ll need a single thread/yarn cast on.

you can use
the KNIT cast on
the Cable cast on
the Simple (aka script letter E cast on)
(see links above to find Video clips with cast on directions if needed!)

all will work… Personally, i would use the SIMPLE.

but [COLOR=Red][B]warning[/B][/COLOR], it will look terrible (at first!)

but when you go back to work on the thumb, you’ll need to add 6 stitches to the 6 stitches you’ve put on stitch holder… I would pick up those 6 stitches from the loopy/messy yarns of the SIMPLE cast on.

that does 2 things.
1–it tightens the loose messy stitches and makes them neat

2–it make the joint between thumb and hand seamless!

BUT you can do what ever you want (or you can look ahead to see what the pattern suggests!) ITS YOUR KNITTING

the directions are there to HELP YOU. not hobble you.