sigh.....

So, I'm still working on the gusset idea. I have it close enough that I am making a full size pair. I had to do a little duplicate stitch to clean up the corners but overall I'm happy with it. I'm thinking I'd always have to do a little fixing to any gusset to be sure it's good and durable.
Here's a photo of "some" of the samples I've done. This has been a long process! I also did some that I unravelled.
The good news is the machine knitting part went very well on this pair.

the bad news is I tried with some cream yarn first, intending to tie dye them. I don't know wth was going on but it was never ending screwups. First, the yarn had a bad spot in it, then the machine kept dropping the knitting, at one point so severely that I had to just start over. I finally got it done after restarting twice - got it off the machine and found that the short rows hadn't wrapped and had big holes! It was hell. I think I'll burn that yarn.

So, I retried with some fishermans that I dyed green. I had put some hair conditioner on it after I dyed it and boy that made a HUGE difference in the machine knitting. It really cut down on static which is trouble for machines. The color is gorgeous.
anyway, I'll still do the perfection pant gusset as well but really wanted to work this one out - if it was possible. I never would have thought of garter if I hadn't done the perfection pants for sure so thanks pam :)

I've added a photo of the green shorts partially finished. It actually turned out pretty well - still a few things I will try next time but overall I'm pleased with the result and think it's a definite improvement over my old method.