Sunday Morning Knit Wit ~ Linen Stitch

I love the texture this stitch creates.  It has the appearance of a hand woven fabric and makes me think of the days when women would make their own fabric. It is a very simple combination of stitches and only two repeating rows.

It can be changed up to give different effects by using different type yarns. The photo demonstrates 3 different effects using solid wool, tweed and verigated yarns.   I personally like the tweed look the best, but I must say that the verigated look is interesting.  I'm not a big fan of verigated yarn and you will rarely see my work using it, but I do like the the effect it has with the linen stitch.

The linen stitch is worked in multiples of 2 +1 (example: 18 + 1 for a total of 19 stitches) and with 2 repeating rows.  It's easy to see where you are and where you left off, so this is an easy project to put down and pick up again.


I'm in the process of making a scarf with this pattern that I think will look fantastic with my charcoal grey wool pea-coat style winter jacket next winter using a deep red wool tweed.

For this pattern I cast on 21 stitches and repeat the following 2 rows:

Row 1: K1, *(Sl 1 wyif, K1) rep to end  (wyif = with yarn in front)
Row 2: K1, P1, *(Sl 1 wyib, P1) rep to end (wyib = with yarn in back)

I'm going to finish it off with a short 1 1/2 inch fringe.

Last week I asked people to answer a poll regarding the type of knitting needles they prefered. The results show that bamboo needles are the favorite at 75% and alumimun coming in second at 25%. 
I was taught using alumimun needles and used them exclusively for over 25 years. It wasn't until a few years ago that I tried bamboo and I absolutely love them.  It was a bit hard on my budget to replace all the needle sizes with bamboo but I simply would get a new set as I needed new ones.  I tried going back to alumimun and I felt very uncoordinated and my stitches were so uneven that I will only use bamboo now. 

This week's poll ~  Which yarn do you like for the linen stitch - Plain, Tweed, Verigated?
 
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Knitting!

Sunday Morning Knit Wit ~ Woven Stitch

This weeks feature stitch is the Woven Stitch. 

The possibilities for this stitch are endless ~ scarves, afghans, sweaters...  Because this stitch is suitable for so many different projects, I was really undecided as to what I would make for this blog entry.  I finally decided on a basket because I felt that was the most obvious choice.  This was my first time knitting with cotton so I think my gauge may be a little too loose, but I like the way it turned out after all.

I simply crocheted the basket bottom with single crochet stitches and then added the piece to a circlular knitting needle and knit the pattern rows to the top of the basket.  I did a few rows of just knit before the bind off so the rim would curl and then tacked it in place with a darning needle.  Easy- peasy!  And now the fun part - filling it with Easter goodies for my grandson!

Here's the magic formula for this fun stitch ~ 

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: K2, *P2, K2; repeat from * to end
Row 4: P2, *K2, P2; repeat from * to end
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Purl
Row 7: Same as 4
Row 8: Same as 3

Repeat these 8 rows

*** Note - when working on a circular needle the front is always facing, so all the even rows will be opposite from the instructions above ***


Next Week ~~ Diagonal Rib