Island of Misfit Patterns

by Chris Laning

This is a product of some experimentation with working a square from the center out. It also has an edging which is knitted (not sewn) on after the rest is done. But if you plan ahead, you can still do the whole thing with one unbroken piece of yarn.

MATERIALS:

Sugar-n-Cream (worsted wt. cotton), less than one 70-gram skein; and 3.5 mm needles (I used five dp’s and a 16″ circular). This is a washcloth: gauge isn’t that important. You also need a couple of pieces of scrap yarn for cast-ons.

START:

Use your favorite invisible cast-on. I rather like this one: With a crochet hook about the same size as your knitting needles, and using scrap yarn, chain 16, joining into a ring. Pull the end through to lock the chain.

Find a point about 18 inches back from the end of your “real” yarn. Pull this point through the “bump” on the back of one of the crochet stitches (NOT through either “leg” of the chain) to form the first knit stitch. Working with the part of the yarn toward the ball, pick
up 15 more sts and distribute on four double pointed needles.

(Yes, this leaves an 18″ long end dangling. Roll it up and rubber band it or something, but don’t cut it off. You’ll need it to finish the center.)

SQUARE:

Round 1: Knit.

Round 2: Purl till 1 st remains on first needle, increase 1 by your favorite method (I knit under the running thread between the st just knit and the next), K the last st on the needle, and increase again before beginning to purl the next needle, for a total of 8 increases in the round. (This is MUCH easier on four needles than three, I think, because you don’t need to mark the corner sts.)

Round 3: Purl.

Round 4: Knit all around, increasing as you did in Round 2.

Repeat these 4 rounds until washcloth is about 1 inch smaller than you want the finished size to be, always increasing on either side of the same corner sts (this is what makes it a square). When the dpn’s start getting too full, transfer to the circular needle.

(Note: you can purl the corner sts on the purl increase rounds if you find it less confusing, but I think it looks better with those 4 sts kept in knit.)

End with a round of K3, K2tog, knitting the corner stitches plain. (In other words, decrease about five or six sts evenly spaced along each side. Otherwise, the edging will ripple. Yes, you really DO need to decrease this many.)

Knit 5 or 10 sts beyond the end of the round, then stop. (The edging is a bit easier if you don’t have to do a corner right away.)

EDGING:

You are now going to work the edging around all four sides, attaching it as you go. (This will seem weird if you’ve never done it before.) Starting it is the only tricky part. Hold onto your hats. Here goes:

With scrap yarn, crochet a chain of about 5 stitches and pull the end through to lock the chain.

Slip the last stitch you knitted back onto the left-hand needle. Turn your work over as if to work back in the other direction.

One at a time, stick your “new” left-hand needle through three of the “bumps” on the back of the crochet chain, slipping them onto the needle so they look like a row of three stitches waiting to be worked.

Now pick up your working yarn and purl those three “stitches.” Turn your work over (back to the “right side”).

Slip 1, Knit 2, K2tog to attach the edging to the square. Turn.

Work the edging as follows (all slip sts are slipped knitwise). The odd-numbered rows are “outgoing,” the evens “incoming.”

Row 1: Slip 1 (on odd rows, this will always be the decrease stitch you just made), Knit 1, YO, Knit 2. Turn.

Row 2: Slip 1, Knit 3, K2tog. Turn.

Row 3: Slip 1, Knit 1, YO, Knit 3. Turn.

Row 4: Slip 1, Knit 4, K2tog. Turn.

Row 5: Slip 1, Knit 1, YO, Knit 4. Turn.

Row 6: Slip 1, bind off 3, Knit 2, K2tog. Turn.

You will know you have done this right if the first Knit st on Row 6 is the YO of the previous row.

Repeat these 6 rows to make edging. When you get to a corner, work 3 to 5 times into the corner stitch: that is, when you K 2 tog, slip only the first of the 2 sts off the left-hand needle, leaving the second loop — the corner stitch — *on* the needle. Work out and back, doing this again. The third (or fifth) time, work out and back, and when you K2tog, slip both loops off the left-hand needle as usual.

When you’ve arrived back at your starting point, “unlock” and pull out the scrap yarn and graft the end to the beginning as best you can, and run the end of the yarn back into the stitches as you usually do to finish off.

Um, haven’t we forgotten something?

Oh yes, the center.

CENTER:

Carefully “unlock” the scrap yarn and pull it out. (I find this easiest if I lay the whole thing down on a flat surface.) Pick up the resulting 16 sts on your dpn’s.

K 2 tog all around (8 sts), using that 18-inch long “tail” that’s been patiently waiting for you all this time.

Lay the square down on a flat surface again and pull the needles out. Thread a yarn needle with the long end. Now carefully run the end through all 8 stitches, taking the yarn around in the same direction you’ve been knitting with it. Pull tight. Go around once again for insurance and finish off the end.

This makes a pretty little “star” at the center if you are careful not to twist the sts the wrong way or get them out of order.

The reason for the decrease round: I find it much easier to start on 16 sts when working from the center out than with 4 or 8 — the needles are less likely to slide out of the stitches, and you don’t feel quite so much like you’re trying to get a porcupine to cooperatefor those first couple of rounds.

by Chris Laning

These instructions are for a modern reproduction of the knitted woolen pouch found with the Gunnister bog burial, unearthed in 1951. The purse contained coins of the late 1600s.

I have adapted this pattern from information contained in A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt and in 17th Century Knitting Patterns by The Weaver’s Guild of Boston (unfortunately out of print). I then checked the pattern with a researcher who has seen and studied the original purse and corrected it accordingly.

SIZE

At 12 sts/inch, the finished size is about 3 1/2 by 5 inches.

PATTERN NOTES

These instructions give a very close, but not quite stitch for stitch, replica of the original. The original pouch is knit at a slightly finer gauge, about 14 sts/inch, and with more stitches
(about 98) so it comes out the same size. The ribbing pattern and color pattern repeats are also not perfectly regular as they are in these instructions.

PATTERN

With fine gray-brown Shetland yarn (a bit lighter than fingering yarn), and needles that give you a gauge of approximately 11 to 12 sts/inch, cast on 85 stitches on three or four needles. (This will likely require a needle size close to 1.75mm/US size 00.)

If you want to reproduce the purse exactly, use its rather peculiar cast-on. To do this, cast on 4, take the last loop onto a small crochet hook and chain 7, fastening the last chain to the first and putting the loop back on the knitting needle. Cast on 4 more and repeat. (You can of course do the chaining with a knitting needle, but it’s easier with a hook.)

Work around in K3, p2 ribbing for 2 inches. Work 1 row of purl all around, adding three stitches to make 88.

The rest of the purse is in stockinette with no shaping: just follow the color chart, starting at the top.

At the end of the chart, before the last red row, fold the knitting flat and cast off the two sides together in red to close the bottom. Braid a cord out of three 2-strand pieces of the main color. Add tassels.

COLOR CHART

This pattern is covered by a Creative Commons license. It is copyright by Chris Laning, 2007. Copies of the pattern, and the purse, may be made for nonprofit educational use only. This copyright notice must be included. Thank you!

by La of JenLa

A square modified old shale lace baby blanket knitted from the center-out in the round that can easily be adapted to a shawl using a lighter-gauge yarn and smaller needles. The traditional lace pattern is simple yet beautiful so that it can be knit in either a variegated or solid colored yarn. For a large blanket or shawl all you have to do is add pattern repeats.

This pattern is in Adobe Acrobat reader format. Click here to download the pattern.

by La of JenLa

This pattern works well with any type or gauge yarn. Just adjust your needle size accordingly, and keep in mind that your finished blanket will vary in size. The pattern was written for worsted weight.

This pattern is in Adobe Acrobat reader format. Click here to download the pattern.

by AuntieJimbo

Summertime is upon us here in the Valley of the Sun! It’s time to have a pedicure and go shopping for some new flip flops! When I was a kid I hated getting new flip flops (we called them thongs, but I can’t help but think of butt-floss whenever I hear the word). The skin between my first two toes was tender and weak from being safely ensconced in layers of wool socks and snow boots. The plastic part that connected the rubber sole to the straps always rubbed a raw spot between my toes. Why did it take me 32 years to come up with a more fashionable solution than a Band-Aid? Who knows, but thank Petes I did!

A Google search resulted in many results for a foot thong, and none of them were what I wanted. A short conversation with some of the wonderful chatters in the old faithful Knitty chat proved helpful, but nothing was quite what I wanted. I’m not a pattern writer by any stretch of even the most flexible imagination. This is only a very basic recipe which will hopefully be taken to higher heights by more experienced, less math-phobic (Happy Pi day!) knitters than I. But I hope you like it!

Materials:

• I used Regia Bambou in a color whose name I cannot find.
• Needles: bamboo (are we sensing a trend?) DPNs, US 2.
• Tapestry needle for weaving in ends
• Pedicure (you see our model Chloe needs a pedicure!)

Directions:

Cast on 64 stitches, divided 22, 22, 20 on three needles. Join, being thoughtless and devil-may-care about the twisting thing. A twist might prove to be uncomfortable, though.

Since this is a short item, I recommend you join by slipping the first stitch on the first needle back over the last stitch on the third needle, and then placing that last stitch on the third needle onto the position of first stitch on the first needle. This will shrink what I like to call the stretch mark in the first few rounds.

So you’ve cast on and joined your stitches! Now continue in a k2 p2 rib for about half an inch. Then switch to stockinette until the Fong is long enough to cover the ball of your foot and end just before your toe cleavage shows.

Are we there yet? Ok, here’s the tricky part. Bind off the first eight stitches of needle 1. Leave the next five stitches on the needle and float your yarn behind them. With a new needle, continue binding off the rest of the stitches through the rest of needle one and all of needle two. Continue binding off until you reach the last thirteen
stitches of needle three. Move the next five stitches to a new needle, float the yarn behind these five, and bind off the remaining eight stitches. Snip the end of the yarn and leave it dangling until it’s time to weave in the ends.

When I did this, I had six stitches on each remaining needle: the last from binding off, and the five that I’d moved to the spare needle. Perhaps there’s a better way to manage this, but at this point in my knitting career I don’t know what that might be. So take up your yarn again and begin knitting the stitches on the first needle, again in stockinette stitch. Knit until this piece is long enough to connect the front and back of the Fong with no pulling or stretching. Line up the two needles, join the stitches and bind off with the kitchener stitch, 3-needle bind off, or whatever ‘I’m done with this thing!” method you prefer.

Voila! You may now wear your new flip flops without danger of injury! Hooray, Fong!

About the Designer:

The author acknowledges that this isn’t the most well-thought-out pattern ever, but appreciates your adventurous spirit. She blogs at Old Lady PenPal Shares a Tale and can be found on Ravelry under the name AuntieJimbo.