Hand-knit mittens, gloves, and fingerless mitts are wonderful, but what about that thumb gusset? Inevitably, there's a hole left where the thumb joins the body of the mitt or glove, and you have to take the extra step of closing it up with a needle and yarn. Not the end of the world, but still.

I've figured out how to avoid that hole altogether, so when you're done, you're really done! I found two great techniques, one from Michelle Hunter and another from aknitica, and then perfected those techniques. Here's the story of that process and a demonstration of this great knitting hack!

When I was working on this problem, I really wanted to close that gap completely. I decided to address the issue from the hand part of the mitten and then again when I began to knit my thumb. 

I knit all of my thumb increases and then put those stitches on scrap yarn. On my very last stitch before the gap and before I resumed knitting, I placed the running thread before that stitch on the left needle as if to make one left, then then I knit that together with the last stitch. Then place the next running stitch, to the right of the next stitch, as if to make one left (same as before) and knit that and the following stitch together. This really closes up the gap!

Now you simply continue knitting the top of your mitten as instructed by your pattern. This simple hack takes out half of your gap right away and the other half is decreased by using either Michelle’s technique or knitica’s technique when you begin to knit your thumb.

I hope this helps you perfect those thumb gussets!

Happy knitting,