Last year, Marissa of Stitch Marker blogged held a contest to decorate the meathead hats for her upcoming book. I immediately thought of something sweet. This embellishment can be easily adapted as an ornament. You can have many combinations depending on the fun yarn you choose.

Supplies:
Any two colors of worsted weight yarn. Leftovers would work great for this project.
US Size 5 double points
Tapestry Needle
Stick Pins

Abbreviations:
MC = Main color
CC = Contrast color
K = Knit

Instructions for Lollipop:
**Cast on 3 sts using double pointed needles.
Knit, don’t turn. **
Slip the stitches back to the beginning of the needle and k the row again.
Continue in this manner until you have a short length of knitting, pull down on the cord and the gap at the back will close.

Continue until the i-cord is the 15-19” or is the length you desire. Thread the yarn through the stitches and pull firmly.

Instructions for Stick:
Using CC, work pattern as mentioned in **. Knit i-cord until it measures 5”.

Assemble the Lollipop:
Starting from the center, roll the i-cord into a tight circle. Use the stick pins to hold in place. Once it’s secure, turn the lollipop on the wrong side. Using a tapestry needle, begin sewing the icord edges together until circle is secure. Weave in all ends.
Using one end of the i-cord stick, sew securely to back of lollipop.
Enjoy!!

About the Designer:
Lynette is half of Passionknit, and a co-founder of this site!

I submitted this shawl to elann.com’s shawl contest a year or so ago, and although it made top ten, it did not win. I love it and I think it’s a pretty shawl and would like to share it.

This pattern is a Adobe Acrobat (PDF) download. Click here to download the pattern.

About the Designer:
Christie Pruitt has an etsy store: mandcpruitt.etsy.com and I also sell my hand-dyed yarns on ebay, - and I’m also on Ravelry: mandcpruitt or Christie Pruitt!

Materials:
Reynolds Lopi Icelandic Wool
Main Color (MC) 1 skein
Contrasting Color (CC) 1 skein (lots left over)
16” Circular needles (and double points) size 10
Crochet hook Size G / 6

Gauge:
7 sts. = 2”, 19 rounds = 4”

Notes:
Ear flaps are worked back and forth in rows. Cap is worked in the round. When working with more than one color, carry color not in use loosely at back of work being careful to maintain gauge.

Ear Flaps:
Make 2. With MC cast on 5 sts. Increase 1 st each side on RS row 6 times starting with Row 3 and last inc will be row 13 – (17 sts.) Work even until 18 rows completed . Leave on needles.

Hat:
With MC cast on 7 sts, k 17 ear flap sts, cast on 24 sts, k 17 ear flap sts , cast on 7 sts – 72 sts. Place marker. K2, P2 rib for 5 rounds. Follow chart for a total of 6 repeats. When done with chart, work 5 rounds in MC.

Chart:

Shape top:
Round 1: [K2 tog, K10] 6 times. Round 2 and all even rounds: K. Round 3: [K2 tog, K9] 6 times. Round 5: [K2 tog, K8] 6 times. Continue in this manner working 1 st less between decs on every dec row until 6 sts remain. Break off MC Leaving a long strand of yarn.

Finishing:
Weave strand of yarn through top 6 sts and pull tight. Tack down on wrong side. Weave in any loose ends. With Crochet hook, starting at center st of ear flap, make single chain ~ 12” long. Or make a braid of yarn using 3 – 6 strands.

Finished Size:
Finished scarf is 8 to 9 inches wide and approximately 80 inches long.

Materials:
Needles – sizes 11 and 15
Yarn – Jaeger Natural Fleece, 6 skeins. This is a bulky yarn with a ball band gauge of 10 stitches to 4 inches

Directions:

With size 11 needle, cast on 36 stitches
Work in k1 p1 ribbing for 10 rows

Change to size 15 needles
Work in k6 p6 ribbing for 8 rows then start pattern

Cable Patterning:
Row 1 - place first 6 st on holder (these will be 6 knit stitches) and hold to front, knit next 6 stitches (even though you’ve been purling them), knit 6 stitches from holder, #place next 6 st on holder and hold to front, purl next 6 st, knit 6 st from holder, repeat from #
Row 2, 4, 6, 8 - p 6, k 6, p 6, k 6, p 12
Row 3, 5, 7 - k 12, p6, k6, p6, k6
Row 9 - knit 6, #place next 6 stitches on holder and hold to back, purl 6 stitches, knit 6 from holder. Repeat once from #, knit last 6 stitches.
Row 10, 12, 14, 16 - p 12, k6, p6, k6, p6.
Row 11, 13, 15 - k6, p6, k6, p6, k12
Repeat rows 1-16 until scarf is approximately 75 inches long and end your cable patterning on either a row 8 or a row 16.

Change to size 11 needles and work 10 rows of k1 p1 ribbing.

Bind off.

Notes:
The first and last 6 stitches of every row are knit on the front side and purled on the back side, so you’ll have a k12 on the beginning or end of each front side row, depending on where in the pattern you are (12 on the right for rows 1-8 and 12 on the left for rows 9-16). Follow the stitching on the cable rows carefully to maintain the correct stitches because sometimes you’ll be changing from purls to knits with a cable cross.

I really looked closely at the original scarf and only for the first 8 rows does this scarf have the purl side showing at the left side of the scarf, where you start out on size 15s with the k6 p6 ribbing.

The scarf blocks nicely. It definitely gets longer when blocked. I did a wet block then laid it out on some towels on the floor in a room with a ceiling fan. It took about 24 hours to dry.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Materials:

4 ounces of Paton’s Classic Merino Wool, Color 240 leaf green, or 4 ounces of any worsted weight wool
5 - Size 4 dpns, or size needed to obtain gauge

Cable Rib Pattern:
Rnd 1, 2, 3: k2, p2 across

Rnd 4: Insert right hand needle into first two stitches on left hand needle and k1, but leave sts on left needle. Insert right hand needle into first stitch on left hand needle again and k1 and slip the 2 stitches off left hand needle, p2, and repeat across.

Techniques:

Increases – I used lifted bar increase (M1) , but use increase method of your choice.

Instructions:
Rnd 1: Beginning at toe, cast on figure 8 method 4 stitches on 2 needles.

Rnd 2-3: Work even.

Rnd 4: Increase every other stitch and at the same time, divide onto 4 needles, 4 stitches each needle.

Rnd 5-6: Work even.

Rnd 7: On each needle around, (k1, m1, k2, m1, k1) – 24 stitches total.

Rnd 8-9: Work even.

Rnd 10: On each needle around, (k1, m1, k4, m1, k1) – 32 stitches total.

Rnd 11-12: Work even.

Rnd 13: On each needle around, (k1, m1, k6, m1, k1) – 40 stitches total.

Toe finished, begin leg pattern on top of foot only:

Rnd 14, 15, 16: p1, (k2, p2) around, but end last repeat with p1.

Rnd 17: p1, Insert right hand needle into first two stitches on left hand needle and k1, but leave sts on left needle. Insert right hand needle into first stitch on left hand needle again and k1 and slip the 2 stitches off left hand needle, p2, and repeat across, but end with p1.

Repeat fake cable pattern until foot measures length desired minus 2.5”.

Begin gusset:

Rnd 1: Work across top of foot in pattern (needles 1 & 2). On needle 3, k1, m1, k across rest of needle. On needle 4, k across to last stitch, m1, k1.

Work even for one row.

Repeat last two rows for desired gusset area – I worked 6 increases on either side of foot for a total of 12 increases and 12 rows.

Heel:

Heel will be worked over sts on Needle 3 and Needle 4, starting on Row 1, below.
Row 1 (wrong side): slip first stitch, purl across next 14 stitches; on next needle, purl 5. Turn
Row 2: (right side): slip first stitch, knit across next 9 stitches, turn.
Row 3: Slip first stitch, purl across next 9 stitches, turn.
Repeat rows 2 & 3 three times more, and then repeat row 2 once more.

After knitting last row, you will continue along the side of the flap and pick up and knit 5 stitches on the side of the flap.

Slip first stitch, purl back the 5 stitches you just picked up, the next 10 stitches from your flap, and pick up 5 more stitches along other side of flap – 20 purl stitches. You are left with your original 20 stitches from the bottom of your foot, and gusset stitches to be decreased away.

Sl first st, k1, slip 1 across to last stitch of the heel, and decrease last stitch along with one stitch from gusset.

Turn, and purl back, decreasing last stitch of heel with one stitch from gusset.

Repeat these two rows until all the gusset stitches have been decreased away and you have only 20 stitches.

Knit across the two needles you have been working on, work across the top of your foot in pattern, and continue the pattern around the leg.

Knit even in pattern for desired length of leg, minus 2” for ribbing.

K2, p2 around. Bind off loosely, using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s sewn bind off, or other bind off of your choice.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER:

Anastacia learned to crochet so long ago she barely remembers. What she does remember is moving to a new house and wanting an afghan on her bed. She asked her mom & her dad (both who know how to crochet, though neither currently does) to make her one, without any luck. So she went out and bought a few skeins of yarn – not having any idea how much yarn one needs for an afghan – and began crocheting. After that, she saw a pattern for a granny square afghan & her mother taught her how to read patterns. From then on the obsession began! Anastacia learned to knit around the same time from a church friend, but it never really “took” until 4 or so years ago when she stumbled across combo knitting (not knowing what it was called at the time). Her favorite things to knit or crochet are anything with lots of color – stripes, fair isle, intarsia motifs, etc.