I usually knit mittens with gussets, but normally I make them offset, so that the mitten/glove thumb is located where your real thumb is.

I noticed that a lot of people had made these mittens with a side gusset modification, and decided to give it a try, and made the first mitten that way. But because your thumbs don’t stick out straight from the side of your hand, having the thumb on the side of the mitten makes the mitten twist around to fit. The twisting is OK in a plain mitten, because it’s not really noticeable - but with this pattern, it pulls the miters out of place on the back of your hand.

So I ripped back to before the gusset started, and made the mittens according to the pattern in the book, using the “thumb trick” method. Although there’s no gusset, at least it puts the thumb of the mitten closer to where your thumb really sits.

For the right mitten, I tried it on as I went, positioning the cuff where I wanted it to be, and knit until it was long enough that the the top of the peak at the beginning of the round was at the top of the webbing of my hand where the thumb and forefinger join. Then I put in the waste yarn for the thumb. (And made a note of the row I was on for making the left mitten.) This was at about 6” from the beginning. The cuffs are fairly long - the point of the cuff reaches almost halfway to my elbow. I probably would not make the cuffs so long next time, and might even shorten these, since they’re a little difficult to stuff into the sleeves of my coat.

For the left mitten, the thumb needs to be put on an “upward” slant section, rather than the “downward” slant section. (Otherwise, you’ll have a “peak” at the back of your right wrist, and a “valley” at the back of your left wrist.)

I knit until I had finished the same number of rows before the thumb as for the right mitten, worked across the first 1/4 of the stitches (the stitches on the first needle if using DPNs), and then started the thumb trick on the next set of stitches.

Since there were no gussets, I picked up extra stitches for the thumb - a total of 18. After knitting 2 rounds, I decreased 3 stitches evenly around and knit the thumbs until they were about halfway up my thumbnail. Then I decreased another 2 stitches, worked until the fabric was at the top of my thumb, and then did k2tog’s around for the last round.

I’m really happy with how they turned out. The lack of a gusset does make the fabric pull out of shape a bit in the palm of the hand, but the more anatomically correct placement of the thumb allows the back of the mitten to lay straight. (See photos of them being worn, both front and back.)

I only cast on 40 stitches, as that was what worked with my gauge and hand size.

Started with a German Twisted cast-on, then knit 5 rows in garter stitch starting with a purl row. I started the thumb trick on the 34th round after the garter rounds. I worked 16 rounds after the thumb before starting the decreases at the top. Finished off by drawing the working yarn through the last 8 stitches.