What the Heck is a Fourchette?

I was knitting my Treads (free pattern on Ravelry!) and got to the semi-fingers when the pattern said to cast on 3 fourchette stitches.  What the heck is a fourchette???!?  Actually, let me back up.  I got to the semi-fingers and, dreading the tediousness of this part of the glove, put it down for a while.  I have avoided knitting gloves or tipless gloves for a very long time, because I thought that knitting the fingers would take forever and be very fussy.  And....I was partially right.  It is very fussy.  But it didn't take forever.  Probably because they are tipless gloves and only four rows high.

Back to what the heck is a fourchette???..... Apparently, in addition being the French word for "fork" and a part of the female anatomy, fourchettes are also the stitches that bridge the front and back of the glove at the finger, and are very easily created by using the backwards loop cast on.

Here is the glove with a couple of fingers done:

And here are a couple of pictures of the fourchettes:

 Each finger has between 11 and 17 stitches - different for each finger; who knew? - and involved making fourchettes as well as picking up stitches from the fourchettes of the previous finger.  UGH.  VERY fussy.

HOWEVER.  I love how it turned out:

Love the design.  Love how they fit.  Love the snugness of each of the fingers. LOVE!
In addition, knitting all of the fingers and the thumb took about an hour and a half.  Not too bad.

HOWEVER (again).......

It took me about another hour and a half to weave in all those ends.

Next post:  Our latest vacation!