In Anglo-Saxon farm lore, foxes and geese go together as easily as crackers and cheese or cats and mice. We own an old baby spoon decorated on the handle with the incised figures of a goose frantically fleeing a pursuing fox. There are quilt patterns and mitten patterns called Fox and Geese, which seem to have no pictorial relation to either animal.
My friend Tony Cary, of Bath, pointed to the back wall of her fireplace and told me the weather—rainy for a week—would clear, because there were no fox and geese there. She explained that Mainers call the moving sparks on the back of the fireplace and the bottom side of the woodstove lids fox and geese and say that they portend bad weather. As a girl, Tony imagined light catching on the wings of nightflying geese in the waving movement of the sparks, but she has no other explanation of the expression.
In the prairie states and provinces of North America, children stamp a crossed circle into the snow, then play a chasing game called Fox and Geese. The crossed circle also shows up in an old board game in Appalachia and the Maritime Provinces called Fox and Geese. The Fox and Geese mitten pattern, rendered in two colors as it is in Canada, looks like the crossed circles of both Fox and Geese games.
Mainers, not knowing the game, were inventive. Nora Johnson of Five Islands, who learned to knit these mittens as a girl in the Farmington area, told me the only real Fox and Geese Mittens have three colors: red for the horizontal lines, black for the verticals and crosses, and white for the background.
Knitting the design in three colors completely destroys any resemblance to the Fox and Geese games, but makes possible the story Mrs. Johnson’s grandmother told her—that the design actually depicts foxes and geese. To see them, you must allow your fantasy free play.
The red lines are fences—to keep foxes and geese apart, of course. The little black dots forming the Xs are worried little geese with their wings flapping. At the corner of each box, looking through the fences is a fox’s head, its ears (which could also be geese) pricked diagonally up, and its nose (which could also be a fence post) pointing straight down. Work on it. If you want to, you’ll be able to see them.
Nora Johnson’s Fox and Geese Mittens in three colors
These directions are based entirely on Mrs. Johnson’s pattern, although I have worked out more sizes based on her oral instructions and have given the two-colored version of the pattern as well.
Roughly, you add one more horizontal rep widthwise and one more band lengthwise for each size increase. The thumb grows from three reps around for very young children to five reps around in men’s sizes. There must be some compromise when this increase is a minimum of three-quarters of an inch. Florence Nowell of Newport, Maine, reduces a too-wide thumb by ripping it out and reknitting with needles one size smaller.
In two colors, this pattern is also called Compass Work or Compass in some parts of Nova Scotia and in Harpswell, Maine. In New Brunswick, it’s called Naughts and Crosses (tic-tac-toe). These too are mind games: In two colors, you can see needles pointing north, east, south, and west, or the grid and Xs and Os of tic-tac-toe, as you choose.
Yarn In Maine, Fox and Geese Mittens are traditionally knit with black or navy verticals and crosses (MC), a white background (CCa), and red fences (CCb). Today knitters use whatever color combination appeals to them, with the third color often only slightly different from the color of the other lines.
Knit with medium weight yarn. I use Bartlettyarns 2-ply Fisherman, or similar 2-ply wool yarns, but softer, commercial medium weight wool (or acrylic) yarn that knits at the stated tension can also be used.
In Bartlettyarns 2-ply Fisherman, one 4-oz (114g) skein each of MC and CCa and about 1 oz (28.5g) of a third color (CCb) will make two pairs of Woman’s Small mittens or one pair of Man’s Medium and a pair of child’s 2–3 or 6–8. Man’s Large uses most of two skeins.
Equipment 1 set Size 4 (3.5mm, Can. Size 9) double-pointed needles, or size you need to knit in pattern at correct tension • 1 set Size 2 (2.75mm, Can. Size 12 or 11) double-pointed needles for optional ribbing • 6 ” (15cm) length of contrasting waste yarn • Blunt-tipped yarn needle
Tension 6 sts and 7 rnds = 1 ” (2.5cm) in pattern
ABBREVIATIONS beg: beginning • CC: contrast color • dec(s): decrease(s) • inc(s): increase(s) • k: knit • k2tog: knit 2 together • MI: make 1 stitch • MIL: make 1 stitch left • MIR: make 1 stitch right • MC: main color • p: purl • rep: repeat • rnd(s): round(s) • SSK2tog: slip, slip, knit 2 sts together • st(s): stitch(es) • twisted MI: twisted make 1 cast-on
Measurements—inches and centimeters
| Child Sizes | Adult Sizes | |||||||||
| 2–4 | 6–8 | WS | WM | WL | MM | ML | MXL | |||
| Hand length | 4½ | 6 | 6½ | 7 | 7½ | 7 | 7½ | 8½ | ||
| 11.5 | 15.25 | 16.5 | 18 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 21.5 | |||
| Hand circumference, incl. tip of thumb | 5 | 7¼ | 7½ | 9 | 9 | 9½ | 9½ | 10 | ||
| 12.75 | 18.5 | 19 | 23 | 23 | 24.25 | 24.25 | 25.5 | |||
| Mitten hand length | 4¾ | 6½ | 7 | 7½ | 8 | 7½ | 8 | 9 | ||
| 12 | 16.5 | 18 | 19 | 20.25 | 19 | 20.25 | 23 | |||
| Mitten thumb (⅓ hand) | 1⅝ | 2⅛ | 2⅜ | 2½ | 2¾ | 2½ | 2 | 3 | ||
| 4.25 | 5.5 | 6 | 6.5 | 7 | 6.5 | 5 | 7.5 | |||
| Mitten width | 2½ | 3½ | 3¾ | 4½ | 4½ | 4¾ | 4¾ | 5 | ||
| 6.5 | 9 | 9.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 12 | 12 | 12.75 | |||
Fox and Geese is a rep of 6 sts and 6 rnds. Incs are made only in the first pattern rnd. For clarity, 1 band means all 6 rnds; 1 rep means all 6 sts. Carry MC ahead at all times (p. 16).
Simplify carrying the third color by using a bobbin, a fisherman’s netting needle, or a tight little center-pull ball (p. 24). After the first CCb rnd, drop the ball/bobbin down inside the mitten and pull it out only to knit the sixth rnd. Fox and Geese—both versions—works best as a circular pattern. Because of the single-color row and the odd number of 2-colored rows, knitting it flat may cause you to weep.
The cuff shown is worked in stockinette stitch with the Fox and Geese pattern. Cuffs can also be knitted in stockinette stitch with vertical stripes (k1MC, k1CCa) following the same directions as for the patterned cuff.
Cuffs in k2, p1 ribbing are another alternative (see directions on ps. 80–81, following directions for patterned cuff).
![Change to larger needles and stockinette and work 1 rnd MC to 6 sts before end of rnd. (If you are using 3 colors for the Fox and Geese pattern, join CCb [p. 18], and complete rnd. Work 1 rnd CCb to 6 sts before end of rnd.) Join CCa and complete rnd. Start chart at lower right on Rnd 1. Child 2–4 6–8 WS WM Adult WL MM ML MXL](../Images/chpt_fig_073.png)
The Fox and Geese thumb gore is unusual in that 6 sts are added in each inc rnd, and inc rnds occur only every six rnds. This unique inc is a feature of this mitten throughout New England and Atlantic Canada, and a bragging point, if you care to brag!
Before you start working the first rnd of thumb gore incs, study the photo at right and the charts on p. 79. Note that all incs are made in Rnd 1 of chart and match pattern 2 rnds earlier (Line 5 of chart). There are 6 incs in each inc rnd, 3 incs on each side of St 1 or St 4 of chart. In this way, the pattern continues undisturbed, with a whole rep arising intact from the solid-color horizontal line.
The thumb gores are placed so that the joint between rnds lies on the palm side of the mitten and a continuous MC line flows up the back of the hand alongside the thumb.
Incs are worked by knitting both colors into the front loop of a st to make 2 sts above 1 st (p. 21) and by M1 left or right (p. 20). Although all this sounds challenging, the inc is so logical and simple that after you have done it once you probably won’t have to refer to these directions ever again.
Note: Carry MC ahead throughout (p. 16). Check after the first rnd that the rep comes out even. A mistake here can throw everything else off and take the fun out of the project.
The unusual Fox and Geese thumb gore increase, 6 stitches close together in 1 round in Line 1 of each pattern repeat, is part of a set of oral mitten instructions passed down for generations.
