Even though I have been writing my own patterns since 2008, I'm still learning new thins every day. My Kids Gifting Mittens pattern is one such experience -- it's the first time I have ever written a pattern for multiple sizes.
When I wrote the pattern, I ran into a little confusion when I got to the thumb hole. Depending on the size mitten you were making, you would have either 18 (S), 21 (M), or 23 (L) rounds. The logical thing to me was to begin the thumb round at 24 (skipping rounds 19-23 for small and rounds 22-23 for medium). The pattern goes something like this:
Rounds 7-18 (7-21) (7-23): CH 1. SC in each ST around (24/30/36 SC). Join to first SC in round with SL.
Note: If you need a bit more length to your mitten, repeat Rounds 7-23 as needed.
Round 24: ... pattern continues ...
The reason I chose to do it this way is so that all of the round numbering would start in the same place after the thumb hole was made. This would avoid a clumsy numbering scheme through the rest of the pattern (where each round would have different numbers depending on the mitten size you're making).
I got some feedback from a kind customer yesterday that this was just a bit confusing. Her argument is that by setting all the mittens to "Round 24" at the thumb, it's hard to tell how many total rounds are in the project. We went back and forth a bit and her suggestion was do do something like this:
Rounds 7-18 (7-21) (7-23): CH 1. SC in each ST around (24/30/36 SC). Join to first SC in round with SL.
Note: If you need a bit more length to your mitten, repeat Rounds 7-23 as needed.
Round 19 (22) (24): ... pattern continues ...
The positive side of this change is that you know exactly how many rounds are in your project, but the negative side is that you end up with a round numbering scheme through the rest of that pattern that looks something like this:
Rounds 20-23 (23-27) (25-30): ...
Round 24 (28) (31): ...
Rounds 25-26 (29-31) (32): ...
You get the idea.
I'd love to get the feedback of some more experienced multi-size pattern writers/users. What do you prefer? Keep the pattern the way it is, or revise the round numbering scheme?
I'll put everyone who leaves feedback (either here on the blog or on my Facebook page) in a drawing to win one free pattern of their choice -- so if your email address is not on your Blogger profile, please make sure you leave it for me. Winner will be announced in the next couple days (depending on how quickly I get feedback).
Thank you!
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