Don't know if I can help, but here goes - you are making two-needle mittens, right? try to picture the mitten laid out flat -

slip stitch over - one decrease made on seam edge

then knit 16 stitches - main front/or back section of mitt

then knit two together - one decrease made
then slip stitch over - one decrease made
- those two decreases are on the other "edge" of the mitten when it is folded(this would run along the index finger)

then knit 16 stitches - the other front/or back of mitten

then knit 2 together - one decrease made - on the other edge of mitten at the seam - when you put the 2 seam edges together you have the same decrease pattern(k 2 tog & slip stitch over) as you made on the folded edge only one is on one side of the seam and the second is on the other side of the seam edge.
and continue this pattern until you have 8 stitches left -if I remember correctly, you do the decreases only on the knit side, so decreases would be every other row with purl rows between- check your directions. Also, the "16" main stitches should be decreasing with each knit row - next decrease row the main stitches between decreases should be 14 & 14; then 12 & 12, etc until you have only 8 stitches left on your needle, then bind off loosely.

Are you sure you're doing the 16 main stitches between the decreases? I can't figure why it is lopsided. Do you have a picture of the finished mitten? If so, look closely, you should see the slip over decreases on both sides creating the top shaping of the mitten.
If you don't have a picture go to www.about.com or www.frugalhouse.com(not sure if that's correct) they probably have pictures.
Good luck.
Sally

Hi, me again.
that website is www.frugalhaus.com - just went there - there's no mittens but plenty of other free patterns.
there's a few pictures on about.com

Sally

Hi Sally,

They are being knit on five needles (four for in-the-round plus the one without the stitches), but your explanation is still very very helpful! As I understand it, each time you do a new round, you change the number of stitches BETWEEN the decreases, right? When they say to keep in the pattern, is it that they mean the DECREASING pattern? I thought they meant the CABLE pattern that is on the front of the mitten (3 stitches of seed stitch, then a four stitch knit cable, then 3 stitches of seed stitch) so I was trying to do that also). As I understand it now, I would need to do BOTH.

Really, I think this pattern assumes a lot. For one thing, you are supposed to knit it on double-pointed needles, but when they describe the seed stitch they say to always do K, P, K. After about an inch I realized that I had to reverse it on every other round because I was always knitting on the right side of the mitten. I guess they just assumed that you would know this, and I didn't.

It is the same with the decreasing. It would have been a lot easier for me if they had just "spelled out" every row on the decreasing, as you did in your post. The way you have described it, I kind of get it "conceptually" now. And yes, the pictures do show a nice symmetrical slip over look.

One of the problems was that I was always doing 16 (and on alternate rows, 14) stitches after the first decrease. At least, I think this is one of the problems.

Now my main problem is tearing out the top of the mitten without losing everything. I wonder if I should just give up on the cable once I start decreasing.

Thank you again for your help. I really don't understand why the pattern would not be clearer.
THANKS AGAIN!

AHA! They say Row 1 is blah blah 16 st blah blah 16 st

Then they say Row 2 is blah blah 14 st blah blah 14 st

Continue in pattern.

They MEANT that Row 3 would be blah blah 12 st etc.
Row 4 would be blah blah 10 st etc.
Row 5 would be blah blah 8 st etc.

What I DID was to just alternate Rows 1 and 2! Row 3 was 16 st (rather than 12), Row 4 was 14 st (rather than 10), etc. I just kept alternating the 16 and 14 st rows. DUH. What a dork I am!

I GET IT ! Now I really get it! ;-)
Sigh