Not loving the mittens

I finished the first mitten from Knit Simple and did not like it at all. I had huge gaping holes at the thumb, which also ended up too short and the overall mitten was too thin feeling. So I pulled out another mitten pattern, Super Mittens from Weekend Knitting. I got very close to gauge with Patons Chunky Tweed. I made the first mitten for the largest size, except I'm once again stuck on the thumb. I've attempted it twice but still with holes. The responses from the knitlist have either said to pick up a couple more stitches than called for (though I can't logically decide which stitches those should be) or sew the holes after the fact with the yarn tail. I don't know. I'm hoping to take it to my LYS for advice.

I hate the first time knitting a pattern!

I am having the hardest time with the mitten pattern from Knit Simple Fall 2007. First, I haven't found a yarn that I can get gauge with. So, instead of knitting on size 5, I'm knitting on size 7 which gets me to row gauge. However, the fabric is looser than I'd like and and it pulls tighter than it should since I'm about 5 stitches off gauge.

First, I didn't read the directions so when I did the color change on the cuff, I didn't do the first row in St st so I have that lovely bar. Then, the first round of increases, I did a standard M1 instead of what the pattern actually called for, so that first row is different than all the other rows. Later in the pattern it gives me three rows and then says repeat last 3 rows 3 times. I took that to mean 3 more times, but apparently it only meant 2 more times for a total of 3 times. So now that I'm in the home stretch and beginning the decrease, I have too many stitches. I'm about to pull my hair out over all this. I'm going to see if I can make it work with just a couple extra stitches which is ok since my gauge was off.

First Official Post

This is my first official post on this, my new knitting blog. I have another blog w/ personal info but can't post knitting stuff to it because, #1 the people who read that blog know nothing about knitting and #2 the stuff I make are presents for family who are the ones reading the blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise. So I've started this one and hope it doesn't become the red-headed stepchild of my blogs.