Eliminate Thumb Gaps:

3-in-1 or 5-in-1 Pickup Method

Use this technique around fingers and thumbs for a lovely gap-free finish

Gaps around thumb gussets are the bane of any civilized knitter. But what is a knitter to do besides leave a super-long tail and weave them all closed after?

Here is my solution, a stitch that I call the 3-in-1 or 5-in-1 Pickup in my patterns. Use the 3-in-1 Pickup for bulky or worsted-weight yarns, and the 5-in-1 pickup for lighter worsted weights and thinner.

Text: How to Eliminate Thumb Gaps - Use this technique around fingers and thumbs for a lovely gap-free finish. Image: The top side of a mitten thumb with a column of stitches up the centre and solid fabric joining it with the hand.

How to do it:

Basic Principle:

You’ll be knitting extra stitches above the thumb gusset where you’d normally pick up only one, then quickly decreasing them over the next several rounds.

What Should It Look Like?

Most thumbs are increased from a single stitch, and when you put those thumb stitches “on hold” and cast on to create the rest of the hand, you cast that stitch back on. Then, when you are ready to create your thumb, you pick up your held stitches, including a single stitch where you cast one on. Unfortunately, this method tends to leave gaps on either side of the cast-on stitch.

This technique fills in those gaps with some extra stitches that you quickly decrease to the single stitch originally called for. There will be a small gap where you first joined the yarn to begin knitting the thumb, which you can easily close when you weave in your end.

This may also be used between fingers on gloves, though it does add a little extra bulk.

The result looks like this:

What the 5-in-1 Pickup looks like on a Worsted Weight mitten. There is a centre chain in the middle of the decreased stitches.

3-in-1 Pickup in Bulky Weight yarn on a mitten thumb — For this Bulky Weight 3-in-1 Pickup, I used the Double Central Decrease (DCD) instead of the Central Chain Decrease demonstrated in the video. Either one works, it just depends what look you are going for.

5-in-1 Pickup on a fingering weight mitten using the Central Chain Decrease. (This thumb had stitches decreasing along its length, which is why the centre chain continues to the end of the thumb.)

Stitch Glossary:

CCD (Central Chain Decrease): slip two stitches together knitwise, k1, pass two slipped stitches over stitch just worked.

k2tog: knit two stitches together as one

ssk (slip, slip, knit): slip two stitches one at a time knitwise, place tip of stitch-holding needle into both stitches from the tip end of working needle, knit slipped stitches together as one. (In other words, you are slipping the stitches individually to put their left legs in front, then knitting both together in the back loop.)

Method:

5-in-1 Pickup

Round 1: After placing thumb gusset stitches on needles, knit thumb gusset stitches around thumb to the gap created by the cast-on stitch above the gusset. On edge of gap where you are supposed to pick up stitches (where most patterns indicate picking up a single stitch), pick up the bar from the row below the one you are working. Place on non-working needle with leading leg in front and knit into the back loop so it twists. Knit three stitches across cast-on edge. (Be sure middle stitch is picked up from the cast-on stitch). On the other edge of the gap, pick up the bar from the row below, place on non-working needle with the leading leg in front, and knit into the back loop so it twists. (5 stitches picked up.)

Round 2: Knit around. When you reach the five picked up stitches, ssk, k1, k2tog.

Round 3: Knit.

Round 4: CCD. Continue as per pattern.