Category Archives: Knitting Pattern

Knitting Pattern, Working Stuff

New Year, New Wall, New Project

2 Comments

Okay, so we are now in 2025.  Welcome to a new year full of hopes and dreams, inspirations and aspirations.

The wall around the window is still not entirely fixed.  I showed you on Tuesday where the wall had been torn out, preparing for repairs.  It should have been a one-day job.  The work isn’t being done by a regular contractor; I’ll leave it at that.  I spent Tuesday night without insulation in that area.  Ditto for last night.  Framing was done today, with insulation and sheetrock, but there was trouble sealing the window back into place, but that finally got fixed near dark this evening.  And, of course, there was some sealant material to prevent further leaks.  But he’ll come back tomorrow to tape and float the sheet rock, and do some other repair work.  Meanwhile, my space is all a-jumble.  Once he fixes everything and cleans up alllll the equipment, tools,  fasteners, and working debris strewn about my space, then I can spend an afternoon putting all the furniture and equipment back into place and I can start regular working again.

Meanwhile, since I can’t do actual work, I’ve used some free time to continue working on The Thing.  I thought I had established a patterning sequence, turning it into a rather mindless busy-work:  starting  with about a dozen knit rows for a garter stitch border, then establish the pattern:  a band of teal with purple squares, then a band of purple with teal squares.  Alternating back and forth, carrying the inactive yarn up the right side, caught up and hidden behind the working yarn of whatever row it is.  Easy-peasy, right?

Wrong!  I somehow wasn’t paying attention and made a double row of teal boxes in the purple band.  I wasn’t keen on ripping out, so I just did a double row of purple boxes on the teal band.  Basically I just turned a mistake into a design feature.

I know I have plenty of both colors, all purchased together long ago.   The piece is 14 inches wide, and currently more than 12 inches long. I have more than enough yarn to make this into 6 or 7 feet long.  So there is plenty of room to just go hog wild and play with variations on the theme; i.e.,  solid bands of color with the contrast color as boxes strewn across.  I could increase the height of the bands.  I could play with the number and/or width of the boxes or how many rows of boxes.  As long as I stay within the framework of color bands with contrasting boxes, I see a lot of room for playing with this.

Or I might just frustrated and frog it out to make a different project but still in the same theme.  I don’t know. The year is young.

Knitting Pattern

Inventing Simple Patterns?

1 Comment

Okay, don’t call me crazy or think I’ve gone around the bend.  Just hear me out, okay?

So, let’s say you have some solid colored yarn, in maybe a DK or worsted weight, and you’re not sure what to do with it. You just can’t seem to find a simple but textured stitch pattern.

I have just the ticket!  Find yourself a fairly straightforward crossword puzzle grid.  I pulled this one (below) at random from one of the crossword puzzle magazines I always have on hand.  This one is 13 squares across and 13 rows down.

First stitch is always slipped with yarn in front; this forms your neat side edges., and we want to have a garter stitch edging (5 stitches) to minimize curling the mostly-stockinette body.

Let’s start with a few rows of garter stitch for a bottom edge border, so cast on 25 stitches.   (Slip stitch, 5 garter stitches, 13 pattern stitches, 6 garter stitches)

Bottom border Rows 1-6: Sl 1, K across.

Pattern rows:  Note: each ‘pattern row’ has a front/facing side and the a back/reverse side, so  you will work each grid row twice, once front side and once reverse side.   Or, you could just work each row individually, but (in my opinion) the purl bumps wouldn’t be a noticeable.

Right/facing side:  Sl 1, K5, place marker,  Knit the white squares, Purl the black squares, place marker, K6
Reverse/back side: Sl 1, K5, slip marker, Purl the white squares, Knit the black squares, slip marker, K6.

This is just an example of what can be done, and not a strict pattern, per se.  You’ll end up with a square with garter stitch edges, and a mostly stockinette field with seemingly random purl bumps on the front side.

Knitting Pattern, Working Stuff

Knitterman Knits!

Leave a comment

It is Thanksgiving today here in the U.S.  For me it is almost always a very low-key holiday, since I don’t normally observe holidays.

I am, however, giving much of the day to trying a new project.  At the request of a long-time friend, I am working with purple and teal on Plymouth Encore worsted wt. yarn.

It is wide enough to be a long rectangular shawl or wrap (80 stitches wide), but I’m not sure I have it in me to continue this pattern sequence to go 66 or 72 inches in length.

What do you think about this so far?

If I worked a black background and an array of rainbow colored blocks I think it might look better.  But I am thinking I might also change the size/shape of the blocks as the work progresses.  I’m just not sure at the moment.

Knitting Pattern

Cleaning Up??

2 Comments

Okay, not really cleaning.  But I did just finish this new dishcloth.   I could have made it taller so it is more squared, but I laid it against my current dishcloth and it is the same width.   Details and pattern down below:

Picture of hand-knitted dishcloth

Picture of hand-knitted dishcloth
Picture of hand-knitted dishcloth

This is a ridiculously easy stitch pattern, designed mostly to give texture, which is important when washing a sink full of dishes.  🙂  The seed stitch forms a ridge visible on both sides, so this doesn’t have a “smooth” side and a “scrubby” side.

Stitches used:
knit (K), purl (P), yarn-over (YO), knit 2 together (K2tog.)

I used basic kitchen cotton (I have a fondness for Lily brand “Sugar  ‘N Cream”) on size 8 needles.

EVERY row begins slip stitch: with yarn held in front, slip first stitch as if to purl, move yarn to back to knit next 4 stitches.  EVERY row ends with K5.

Cast on 55 stitches.   There are 5 stitches on the sides for borders, with 45 stitches for patterning between the borders.  If you wish to go wider or narrower, just make sure there is an uneven number of stitches between the borders.

Knit 8 rows (4 garter stitch ridges), and remember to slip the first stitch of each row, then beginning the Pattern rows.

Pattern rows:

Row 1-4  — Slip 1, K4, *P1, K1, repeat from * until 6 stitches remain, then P1, K5.

Row 5 — Slip 1, K4, P1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until 5 stitches remain, K5.

Row 6 — Slip 1, K4, P across until 5 stitches remain, K5.

Repeat Rows 1-6 as many times as you wish, then end patterning section with just Rows 1-4.

End with 8 garter stitch rows.

Starting and ending the seed stitch patterning rows with a Purl stitch makes the seed stitch patterning more visible against the garter stitch side borders.