A Bluestocking Knits

This is the first of a pair of “Gilded Cage” mitts, being knitted as a gift. I either wasn’t paying attention or couldn’t see on this beautiful but rather dark wool, that I had knitted at least three stitches in different places in the ribbing when I should have purled, and I didn’t really like the way the Estonian braid joined together, so I ripped it out and did it all over again. I liked the way my join looked using the crochet-hook method better, and so I carried on, merrily working the gusset increases as written in the pattern.

But after I had finished the gusset and put the stitches on a piece of scrap yarn to work the thumb later, I slipped the mitt on to my hand just to double check how things were going, and found that the gusset bulged strangely down at the base. This pattern has the gusset increases every other round until there are enough for the thumb, then it is worked straight until it gets to the dividing point, which, sure enough, makes it much wider at the lower edge. I’m not sure why, and it doesn’t look this bulgy in the pattern’s photograph, but of course logic says that increasing every other round for a little over a third of the way and then working straight would give you something resembling a Florence flask.*

And so I’ve ripped it back to the braid and started the gusset again, working the increase rounds more evenly distributed up the length of the gusset. Wish me luck!

* I didn’t know that it’s called a Florence flask! Well, you learn something new every day, don’t you!