Drop Stitch Scarf

Made based on a pattern I found on Ravelry. It's called #13 Drop Stitch Scarf by Laura Bryant.

 

Helga Cabled Mitts

Made from Aran weight yarn, these
fingerless gloves are a quick knit with decorative cables.

They were knit to very (!) clear specifications of my Mum who saw a photo in a catalogue and asked me to knit her such mitts.

This is not a complete pattern, but only a rough explanation.




This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



Materials: 

• about 60 grams of Aran weight yarn
• 4.5 mm dpns
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Terms:
Cable abbreviations are explained in the knitting cables section of http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-knit-a-cable-stitch/ .
Half the stitches of the width of the cable are placed on a cable needle (in case of C8F the cable width is 8, therefore the number of stitches you place on the cable needle is 4). This cable needle is held in front (in case of C8F) in at the back (in case of C8B) of your knitting while you knit the other half of the cables stitches. Then you knit the stitches from the cable needle.

Instructions:

• CO 32 and join in round
• knit 6 rounds of "k2-p2"-ribbing
• the cable is knitted in 3 strands that are each 4 stitches wide; all stitches are knit-stitches, except for a purl channel (1 st wide) around the 12 cable stitches, i.e. set-up row: "k1 p1 k12 p1 k to end"
• cabling is done every 4th row; the strand that leans to the middle is always the "front strand" (in row 4 the cabling part reads "p1 C8F k4 p1" and in row 8 "p1 k4 C8B p1" (and the other way round for the second mitt)). See chart below.
 

 
• for thumb gusset start increases in 24th row after ribbing: place markers around a stitch 2 stitches away from the cabling part (for one mitt on the left side, for the other on the right side) - and k to marker mk1r k to next marker mk1l
• do thumb gusset increases in rounds 24, 28, 32 and 36 (i.e. you increase by 8 stitches)
• in row 40 place 9 thumb stitches on stitch holder and CO1 above the thumb hole (with backwards loop CO)
• do last cabling in row 44 and knit 3 more "k1 p1 k12 p1 k to end"-rows
• finish with 4 rows of "k2 p2"-ribbing then BO in pattern
• for thumb gusset distribute the 9 sts from stitch marker on two needles and pick-up 5 more stitches from above thumb gusset (-> 14 sts)
• knit 2 rounds in stockinette stitch (knitting decreases in the first row where the stitches from stitch holder meet the newly picked up stitches to avoid gaps) -> 12 stitches
• finish with 2 rounds of  "k2 p2"-ribbing then BO in pattern

Circles

After the hexagon mitts, I'm knitting fingerless gloves in a circle shape around the thumb. Right now, it seems that I really like patterns with some "jommetry" (*) in them ... guess, I'm not a witch then. Maybe I should try an Octagram next :-)

UPDATE: The pattern is available here.

(*) "Female wizards aren't right either! It's the wrong kind of magic for women, is wizard magic,it's all books and stars and jommetry" (Terry Pratchett, Equal Rights)

Hexagon Mitts in Two Colours

These mitts are started from the thumb –
increasing to form a hexagon. They are knitted in one part without cutting the yarn - switching from knitting in the round to back and forth and again to knitting in the round. They start with the thumb, i.e. the fiddly part is dealt with right at the beginning. The colour effect is achieved by changing the colour every other row.

Marianne Holmen from strikkeglad.dk has written a Danish translation of this pattern. Thank you very much or rather "mange tak"!


I have designed a cowl in a chevron pattern to go with these mitts.







This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Materials

• a total of about 30 grams of fingering weight yarn – either in two colours or two ends from one skein of variegated yarn
• 3mm dpns (if you prefer the magic loop technique you will need a 3rd needle for a three-needle bind-off)
• 7 stitch markers (1 different from the others; i.e. six “hexagon markers”  & one “travelling marker”)
• a tapistry needle (to weave in the ends)

Techniques and Uncommon Abbreviations

Travelling Jogless Stripes (more about this)

• To minimize the jog between the stripes, you can – when knitting the second round of a new colour – slip the first stitch of that round, place a marker and knit that round not until the old end, but until the newly placed marker. That way the end-of-round shift by one stitch. This technique will be used during part 2 of the pattern.

“Make One Purl”-Stitches (a video that shows these stitches)

• mk1p right-leaning: make one purl stitch by inserting the left-hand needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl through the front of the loop
• mk1p left-leaning: make one purl stitch by inserting the left-hand needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl through the back of the loop

The Pattern

Part 1 - Thumb
CO18 - with yarn A
Round 1: *p1 k1 p1 repeat from * to end
Round 2: *p1 k1 p1 repeat from * to end
repeat round 2 a total of 10 times
Round 12: *p1 place marker k1 p1 repeat from * – these 6 markers will be called „hexagon markers“

Part 2 - Hexagon In-the-Round-Increases
Round 1 (Yarn A): k
Round 2 (Yarn A): *k to marker mk1r slip hexagon marker k1 mk1l  repeat from * to last marker then knit to the end of round
Round 3 (Yarn B): k
Round 4 (Yarn B): sl1 purlwise (re)place travelling marker; p to marker (i.e. also purling the stitch you slipped before)
Repeat these 4 rounds 5 times or until the height from thumb to the top is high enough for you - ending with round 2.

Top Bind-Off and moving from part 2 to part 3
With yarn B: *k1 sl1 repeat from * until you reach the first hexagon marker - stranding yarn A.
BO between the first and the second marker (use any stretchy bind-off techique that you like, e.g. this) - while still stranding yarn A. Remove the two markers.
Knit until the end of this round then *k into stitch below k1 (repeat from * until you reach the first BO stitch - (you have just knitted the first stitches of this round again).
Remove travelling marker.
Turn and knit back one row with yarn B.


(A Note:  I really (really, REALLY) don't like breaking yarn in the middle of a piece - and consequently having to weave in more ends. That's why I go to any length to avoid breaking yarn. In case of these mitts (because of the construction and the colour changes) the yarn is not always where it is needed to be. Therefore, I have used a few "cheats", i.e. stranding the yarn over the first bind-off or knitting in the stitch below. If you don't mind the cutting and the weaving in, you can alternatively break your yarns A and B, slip the stitches to the first marker, start binding off with yarn A there and so on ... )

Part 3 - Hexagon Back-and-Forth Increases
Row 1 (Yarn A, RS): k
Row 2 (Yarn A, WS): *p to one stitch before marker mk1p (left-leaning) p1 slip marker mk1p (right-leaning) repeat from * to last marker then purl to the end of row
Row 3 (Yarn B, RS): k
Row 4 (Yarn B, WS): k
Repeat Rows 1 to 4 a total of three times (or until the mitt is wide enough to fit your hand). Try it on to make sure.
Then knit one row with yarn A - while you're knitting that last row, place the travelling marker (right at the stitch in the middle between the first and second hexagon marker).

Three-needle Bind-Off and Moving to Part 4
To join the front and back of the mitt, do a three-needle bind-off until you reach the travelling marker (you are seeing the WS of your mitt.) -  using yarn A and stranding yarn B. When you've reached the marker put the last stitch on the back needle. Turn your work inside-out to see the RS.
The first stitch of the round is the one you just knitted. Place an end-of-round marker and slip this stitch.
Still using yarn A, pick up a stitch from the bar between the two stitches, i.e. mk1r. Knit to the end of round. Pick up one stitch from the bar between the two stitches, i.e. mk1l.
Make the stitches around the end-of-round marker quite tight in order to avoid holes.
There are only three markers on your needle, the end-of-round marker and two hexagon markers.

Part 4 - Wrist In-the-Round
Round 1 (Yarn B): k
Round 2 (Yarn B): p1 p2tog p to marker p1 mk1p p to marker mk1p p to two stitches before end-of-round p2tog
Round 3 (Yarn A): k
Round 4 (Yarn A): k1 k2 tog k to marker k1 mk1l k to marker mk1r k to two stitches before end-of-round ssk.
Repeat these 4 rounds until there are only three stitches between the two hexagon markers.

With yarn B, k until the last stitch of round. Slip the next stitch, k2tog and psso.
With yarn B, purl one round.

In case the wrist part is not long enough for you, you can continue as follows until the desired length.

Part 5 (optional)
Round 1 (Yarn A): k
Round 2 (Yarn A): k
Round 3 (Yarn B): k
Round 4 (Yarn B): p

Bind-Off
Then bind off loosely with yarn A.

Weave in ends.

Hexagon Mitts

I don't like weaving in ends ... so I tried to construct the mitts in a way that there are only two ends per mitt. It (sort of) worked.

EDIT: Here's the pattern: http://knitting-and-so-on.blogspot.ch/2013/10/hexagon-mitts-in-two-colours.html

Nori - 海苔

Lovely "Nori" Scarf (Pattern by Carissa Browning, published in Knitty, Summer 2013). The first time I ventured into a serious lace pattern - I'm quite happy how it turned out. 

 

The only modification I made is that I did a p2togtbl where the pattern said ssp. 

Historic Knitting Book

as seen at the Swiss Open Air Museum Ballenberg.