knitting Archives - Page 6 of 19

stitch pattern – left slanting diagonal rib

This post is about working the left slanting diagonal rib pattern. It works well both as all-over patterning, as well as an alternative for regular rib as finishing for hems and sleeves. This stitch pattern is worked on both right side and wrong side rows, and is a multiple of 6 stitches.

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 125 Spearmint Green.

Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.

Stitches used

k – knit
p – purl

Left slanting diagonal rib instructions

Row 1 (right side): *K3, p3; rep from * to end.

Row 2: (wrong side): *K2, p3, k1 rep from * to end.

Row 3: *P2, k3, p1; rep from * to end.

Row 4: *P3, k3; rep from * to end.

Row 5: *K1, p3, k2; rep from * to end.

Row 6: *P1, k3, p2; rep from * to end.

Repeat rows 1-6 for pattern.

Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.

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tutorial – Working wrap & turn short rows

What exactly are short rows? They’re partial rows of knitting in your project, that can be used to shape the fabric. Think for example of creating extra room for the bust, or to raise the back neck in sweaters. In this tutorial, I’ll tell you all about the wrap & turn method of working short rows. Good to know, is that “wrap & turn” is often abbreviated as “w&t”. If you encounter it in a knitting instruction, it is telling you to wrap a stitch with your working yarn, and then turn your work. By wrapping this stitch, any holes in the fabric by switching the knitting direction in the middle of your row or round are closed.

Grab your materials and let’s get started!

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 125 Spearmint Green.

Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting. Brand unknown.

Working wrap & turn short rows step by step

To start, work as instructed by your pattern until the point where it says “wrap & turn”.

With the yarn in back, slip the first stitch on the left-hand needle purlwise.
Bring the yarn to the front of the work…
… and slip the stitch back onto the left needle again.
Now turn your work to the wrong side.
Do you see that the stitch we slipped is now wrapped with the working yarn?
Now we’re going to repeat steps 1 to 5, but working them on the purl side instead of on the knit side.
Again, work as instructed by your pattern until the point where it says “wrap & turn”. With the yarn in front, slip the first stitch on the left-hand needle purlwise.
Bring the yarn between the needles to the back of the work…
… and slip the stitch back onto the left needle again.
Now turn your work to the right side again. Do you see that the stitch we slipped is now wrapped with the working yarn?
Before you continue working in stockinette again, we, of course, have to move the working yarn to the back again. Do so in between the knitting needle tips.
In the below picture, I’ve marked the wrapped stitches with stitch markers. It is possible to identify them without marking, but this is just easier.
In this case I didn’t make my swatch big enough, otherwise I could have continued working more sets of short rows, starting the “w&t” 3 sts before the last wrapped (marked) stitch. In other words: Working steps 1 to 8 of this tutorial more times as needed.
At some point, you’ll want to resume working over the entire row or round of the work. This is also the row where you want to pick up the strand that you wrapped around the slipped stitch, and knit it together with the stitch that it wraps.
Especially in stockinette fabric, this wrap is very visible. Also, not knitting the wrap with its stitch will make a visible hole in the fabric. In garter stitch or lace, this may not be that noticeable, though. So, first, work to the first wrapped stitch, and insert the needle from bottom to top into the wrap…
…. Then into the stitch itself as if to knit.
Wrap the yarn around the needle, and pull it through both the stitch and the wrap. Pulling it through the wrap may be a tad fiddly.
To finish the stitch, let it slide off the needle.
Here, I finished the row, turned the work and purled right to the remaining wrapped stitch.
Then, with the yarn in front, insert the needle into the **back** of the wrap, from back to front, and place it on the needle.
If you work the wrap any other way, it will be visible on the right side of the fabric.
Next, insert the needle as if to purl into both the wrap and the stitch itself.
Wrap the yarn around the needle, and pull it through both the stitch and the wrap. To finish the stitch, let it slide off the needle.

The result

Below, you can see the result of the wrap & turn short rows I worked for this tutorial. The shaping is not very dramatic, because I ended up only having room in my swatch for 1 set of short rows.

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aurora blue

Aurora Blue captures all the gorgeous variations of vibrant blue found in the semi-double flowers of this type of delphinium. This design is knit sideways on the bias, making a shallow and asymmetrical triangle, perfect for wearing as an elegant scarf. The combination of garter stitch in a variegated hand-dyed yarn and simple lace makes it a perfect choice to get the best of both worlds.

The pattern contains both fully written out as well as charted instructions for the lace section.

Pay what you want: (minimum €6.95)

€

Difficulty level

Stitches used in this pattern include knit, purl, yo, kfb, skp, k2tog, and a centered double decrease. This pattern is therefor suitable for the intermediate knitter.

Sizes and finished measurements

Finished dimensions of the sample shawl: 174 cm (68 ½ inches) along the upper edge and a depth of 70 cm (27 ½ inches), measured after blocking.

Make the Aurora Blue shawl larger by adding more repeats of the garter stitch and/or by working more repeats in the lace section. As a result, this will, of course, increase the amount of yarn needed.

Pattern details

Gauge: Approx. 17 sts / 24 rows = 10 cm (4 inches) over garter stitch, measured after blocking. Gauge is, however, not critical in this design.
Pattern languages included: English.
Digital PDF has 3 pages (letter size)

Materials

Yarn: 1 skein of Pure 100% Merino Superwash by Rohrspatz & Wollmeise (100% Merino; 525 m (575 yds) / 150 g) in “Blue Bell”. Substitute any variegated fingering weight yarn for a similar result.
Size 4 mm (US 6) / 80 cm (32 inches) circular needles were used in the sample shawl.
Removable stitch marker to denote the RS of the shawl (optional)
Stitch markers to indicate repeats of the lace patterning (optional)
Yarn needle

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tutorial – Working German short rows

Short rows are a very handy way to create shaping in knitted fabric. Use it, for example, to raise the back of the neck in sweaters. You can also think of horizontal bust shaping, to prevent a sweater from riding up. I really like German short rows, because they’re pretty invisible in the resulting fabric, and they’re easy to work too. I don’t know how this technique has gotten its name, though. As I understand it, Germans know the technique as the German equivalent of “double stitch” short rows. But who knows how those things evolve?

Grab your materials and let’s get started!

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 125 Spearmint Green.

Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting. Brand unknown.

Working German short rows step by step

Work as instructed by your pattern until the point where it says “turn and make double stitch”.
Next, turn your work, making sure you have the yarn at the front of your work, ….
… and slip the first stitch on the left-hand needle purlwise.
To make the double stitch, or ds, we now tug the yarn attached to the stitch we slipped. This lifts it up and over the needle, pulling the base of the stitch with it.
This base consists of 2 strands of yarn, making it look like there are 2 stitches, hence the name “double stitch”.
Next, if the next stitch is to be purled, bring the yarn back to the front of the work between the needle and purl. If the next stitch is to be knit, keep the yarn at the back of the work.
In this step it’s important to keep the tension on the yarn, to make sure the double stitch does not slide back into its previous position, before you secure it with the new stitch worked.
Then continue to work the pattern, making double stitches as instructed.
In this example, I purled back to the end of the row, working the last 2 sts as knit stitches to keep the edges in garter stitches. Do you see the ds, just before the turning gap?
Then I worked 2 more sets of short rows, with each set turning to the WS at 2 sts before the last “turning gap”.
Please note: the ds is counted as a single stitch here! In other words: I worked steps 1 to 6 of this tutorial twice more. This is then the result:
At a certain point, you won’t be working short rows anymore and will resume working over the entire row or round of the work. To close the “turning gaps” you will be working over the double stitches.
Whenever you encounter a double stitch, just knit or purl over both strands as if it were a single stitch.

The result

When viewed from the right side:

And, of course, when viewed from the wrong side of the fabric:

Substituting German for wrap & turn short rows

When you have knitting instructions that contain classic wrap & turn short rows, you can’t just substitute them with German short rows. If you do that, the stitch counts will be off. As a result, the placement of the shaping will be slightly different from what’s intended in the pattern. The main difference between both methods is that with wrap & turn, the wrapped stitch is slipped but not worked. This means it technically isn’t part of the short row itself. With German short rows, however, the stitch in the row below the double stitch is the last stitch worked on the previous short row. This means it’s included in the short-row stitch count.

When substituting German short rows for wrap & turn ones on rows that are getting shorter: Work to the number of stitches as mentioned in the w&t instructions before the last turned stitch, then work 1 more stitch and turn your work. At that point, you’re ready to make a ds as described in step 2.

When substituting German short rows for wrap & turn ones on rows that are getting longer: Work 1 fewer stitch before the previous double stitch than called for in the directions for the w&t short rows, and turn your work. Again, you’re now ready to make a ds as described in step 2.

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tutorial – seaming with slip stitch

As I wrote in my tutorial on the mattress stitch, there are many ways to join two pieces of knitted fabric together. And they all have their own advantages and disadvantages! In this post, I’ll be talking about seaming with slip stitch, using a crochet hook. This technique is particularly suited for joining pieces together, that are not an exact match in rows or stitch patterns. Think for example of easing a set-in sleeve into its sleeve cap. Personally, I also prefer it over other seaming methods, because of how easy it is to undo. That flexibility can be a lifesaver when working on long seams like those on flat-knit sleeves.

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 142 Tea Rose. I also used a bit of 155 Vintage Pink.

Crochet hook : A crochet hook similar or smaller to the size of the knitting needles used in the project. The hook pictured is by Pony.

Slip stitch crochet seaming step by step

In this tutorial, I’m using the purple swatch to show you how to seam it close using slip stitch crochet, with the orange yarn. This particular seaming technique can be done with both the right side or the wrong side of the fabric facing. It yields a very decorative seam, that could be used as a design feature when visible on the outside of the piece, especially in a contrasting yarn. In this example, however, I’m working it with the wrong side facing, to have the seam on the inside of the piece.

First, line up the edges of the pieces to be seamed together.
I like to use these bulb-pins to hold the edges together, but regular safety pins or stitch markers could also be used.
To start, insert the crochet hook from front to back through both pieces, on the utmost right of the work. Take care to go under only one edge stitch for each piece.
Next, grab a loop of your seaming yarn …
…. and pull it through both edge stitches.
Next, insert the hook from front to back through both pieces, one stitch to the left. Again, take care to go under only one edge stitch for each piece.
Again, grab a loop from your seaming yarn, and pull it through both of the edge stitches.
You now have through 2 loops of yarn on your crochet hook.
Next, pull the loop closest to the tip of the hook through the second loop.
Repeat steps 5 to 7, each time moving one edge stitch to the right, until the entire edge has been worked.
To complete it, just break the yarn and pull the end through the last remaining loop before weaving in the ends.
Below, you can see how the seam looks when I flip the piece over.
Please note, this is still on the wrong side of the fabric!

The result when viewed from the RS

For completeness’s sake, you can see below how this seam looks on the other side of the fabric, the right side, in this case:

The result of working a slip stitch crochet seam

When I put the seam under a bit of tension, you can see below that the yarn used peeps through for a bit. You can see it is a design feature, using a contrasting yarn. Or, of course, just use the same yarn as for the rest of the project.

And that’s how to work a slip stitch crochet seam. Really not that hard, right?!

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Shoreham-by-Sea tee

The gorgeous linen yarn in the tee pictured, I bought when visiting Sally in Shoreham-by-Sea some years ago. What better to use it for than a simple top-down tee with a circular yoke construction? The top is completely seamless, with subtle star stitch patterning in the yoke, and neat twisted rib edgings. Worked in a 100% linen yarn, this top is a dream to wear in warm weather. Moreover, it also works great as a layering piece!

Instructions for 11 sizes are included, with finished bust measurements ranging from 81 to 152 cm (32 to 59.75 inches).

Pay what you want: (minimum €8.50)

€