Why take the easy way ...

… if there's a more complicated option on offer?

Sometimes I think that I am really too complicated. This time, I wanted to knit a pair of toe-up slippers - starting in stockinette and then changing to garter stitch on top but with stockinette on the soles. It looked great … but I hadn't foreseen that when switching from knitting in the round to knitting flat in garter stitch I would (at one of garter stitch parts) have to purl …

Another option would have been to just ignore the problem and do knitting rows - which would have resulted in a slight irregularity in the texture. But I didn't want that …

So I managed to have to knit garter stitch by doing purl rows only … I have to admit that I find this a bit tedious, even though I don't actually hate to purl like others seem to do.

Anyway, I do like the construction in general and I will finish this pair - even if it is rather a complicated way to get a garter stitch edging.
                                                   
Afterwards, I guess I will knit the same (sort of) slippers again - but this time without the problem of changing from knitting in the round and knitting flat in garter stitch.

Osterspaziergang Socks

After some stressful months, I needed something hopeful ... That's why I decided to knit a pair of socks in fresh colors. Socks that look like spring is in the air. With a yarn in pastel colors and discreet and easy-to-knit lace pattern. The socks are knitted top-down with an afterthought heel.

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



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The name "Osterspaziergang" (Easter walk) comes from a famous part of Faust (Part I). It starts like this:

Vom Eise befreit sind Strom und Bäche

Durch des Frühlings holden, belebenden Blick;

Im Tale grünet Hoffnungsglück;

... 

An english translation can be found here (scene II, rows 903ff.).


Materials

• about 50 grams of fingering weight yarn (or more, depending on your foot size)
• 2.5 mm dpns
• scrap yarn (for the afterthought heel)
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Gauge
12 sts to 4 cm, 16 rows to 4 cm

Special Techniques and Other Useful Information

• Afterthought heel: A great overview how to do an afterthought heel can be found here at dummies.com. Knit Purl Hunter has a series of three YouTube videos where the steps to knit an afterthought heel are shown.
  - placing the scrap yarn
  - removing the scrap yarn
  - knitting the heel.
• Kitchener Stitch: i.e. grafting two life rows of stitches as for example shown in this YouTube video by Purl Soho.
• Sock Knitting Table: There are already a number of tables available on the web that tells you how many stitches to cast on for socks of any foot size, e.g. here by Schachenmayr (see table on page 3), here by Regia or here at aboutneedlework. For this pattern you need the number of stitches to cast on for your socks. 
• Loose Cast-On: If I knit top-down socks (or something else that needs a loose CO), I always do a longtail CO, but on two needles.

Instructions

Use a stitch number that is a multiple of 4 (e.g. 56, 60 or 64).

Loosely CO the number of stitches advised by the sock knitting table and join in round.
I CO 60 stitches and  distributed the stitches on 3 needles.

Cuff
Knit 12 rows of ribbing: * k2 p2 repeat from * to end of round

Knit 6 repeats of the following pattern
Round 1: k all
Round 2: * k2tog yo k2 repeat from * to end of round
Round 3: k all
Round 4: k all
Round 5: * yo ssk k2 repeat from * to end of round
Round 6: k all
You can do more repeats if you want a longer cuff.

Foot
Knit half the stitches on your needles (for me these were 30 stitches) with scrap yarn, place marker, and slip these 30 stitches back to beginning of row.

Then knit repeats of the following 6 rows until the foot is as long a the desired total foot length minus 10 cm (toe and heel).

Round 1: k all
Round 2: k to marker; k2, * k2tog yo k2 repeat from * to end of round
Round 3: k all
Round 4: k all
Round 5: k to marker; k2, * yo ssk k2 repeat from * to end of round
Round 6: k all

Toe
My usual formula for toes is:

• once: 1 decrease row, 3 normal rows (k all stitches)
• twice: 1 decrease row, 2 normal rows
• three times: 1 decrease row, 1 normal row
• and then decrease rows only ... until there are only 24 sts in total, then graft in stockinette

This means
Round 1: k all
Round 2 (decrease row): * k1, ssk, to 3 bef marker, k2tog, k1 repeat from * to end of round
Round 3: k all
Round 4: k all
Round 5: k all
Round 6 = Row 2
Round 7: k all
Round 8: k all
Round 9 = Row 2
Round 10: k all
Round 11: k all
Round 12 = Row 2
Round 13: k all
Round 14 = Row 2
Round 15: k all
Round 16 = Row 2
Round 17: k all
Round 18 = Row 2

Repeat round 18 until there are only 24 sts on your needles

Graft in stockinette stitch.

Heel
Pick up the stitches of the rows directly below and above the scrap yarn. Then remove the scrap yarn.
In the first round pick up 2 or 3 stitches from the gap, i.e. between the upper and lower row.

Then I knitted the heel with the following formula

• alternate 1 decrease row with 1 normal row (k all stitches)
• ... until there are only 24 sts in total, then graft in stockinette

Or spelled out

Round 1: k all
Round 2 (decrease row): * k1, ssk, to 3 bef marker, k2tog, k1 repeat from * to end of round
Repeat rounds 1 to 2 until there are only 24 stitches left on your needles. Graft in stockinette stitch.

Weave in ends. Make two.

Stack Overflow Cowl

Stacked stitches are a wonderful way to achieve lovely and intriguing color patterns. This cowl is knitted flat - started with a provsional cast on and ended by grafting. It may take a while to get the hang of knitting stacked stitches but it's definitely a worthwhile activity - since the finished piece is not your average garter stitch cowl.

The first pattern with stacked stitches I saw was Xandy Peters' Fox Paws Pattern - absolutely stunning! Another one of hers is called Ribbon Candy and available on knitty.com. In this pattern I'm going to use a similar notation to hers for the stacked stitches.

As to the pattern name - a stack overflow is a computing term. It means that an execution stack (a part of the computer's memory) grows beyond the memory that is reserved for it - which can lead to computer security vulnerabilities. For more details see this Wikipedia article.

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



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Materials

• about 150 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors
• 3.25mm needles (straight or circulars)
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Special Stitches and Techniques

• kyok = k1, yo, k1 into the same stitch
• SB = slip back the number of sts to the left hand needle
• inc1-9 = [kyok, SB2] 3 times, kyok, k3
  This is called stacked increase. A YouTube video that shows how to make stacked increases can be found on So, I make stuff's YouTube channel
• dec9-1 = k3, s1, k2tog, psso, SB1, k2tog, pass next st over, SB1 2 times, k2tog, pass next st over. This is called stacked decrease. Also from So, I make stuff's YouTube channel here's a video that shows how to do stacked decreases.
• BBO = backwards bind off: insert the left hand needle into the last 2 sts and knit together, alternatively you can turn your work: do a p2tog and slip the last st back on the left hand needle
• Provisional CO: My favorite method for a provision CO is the crochet provisional CO - it is shown in this Youtube video by New Stitch a Day.
• Grafting Garter Stitch: Shown in this YouTube video by New Stitch a Day. If you want to know all about grafting, please read the brilliant "Grafting Myths" series on Joni Coniglio's blog on knittingdaily.com.
• Carrying yarn up:  If you want to avoid cutting your yarn with every color change (and subsequently to have to weave in too many ends), you will carry up the yarn on the side of your work - this technique is shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter.

Size

I did a cast-on of 51 stitches and total of 38 pattern repeast (38 times the 6 rows). My scarf has a width of 29 cm and a circumference of 150 cm.

Instructions

Provisionally CO51 (or if you'd like to vary the width, cast on a multiple of 4 plus 3 (4n+3))
Row 1 (WS): k all
Row 2 (RS):  k1 * inc1-9, k3 repeat from * until there are only two stitches stitch left, inc1-9, k1
Row 3 (WS): * k2tog k2 kfb k1 kfb k2 ssk k1 repeat from * until there are only 11 sts left, k2tog k2 kfb k1 kfb k2 ssk
Change color
Row 4 (RS) = Row 3
Row 5 (WS) = Row 3
Row 6 (RS): BO4 (and carry up yarn from other color), k2, * dec9-1, k3 repeat from * until there are only 4 sts left, BBO4

Repeat rows 1 to 6 and change color everytime you get to row 4, i.e. you knit 6 rows with each color (rows 4 to 6 and 1 to 3).

Repeat until your cowl has reached the desired lenght - make sure to end with the color you started with. Leave a tail of about 1 meter for grafting. Place the stitches from the provisional CO on the second needle, hold the ends together (RS out) and graft in garter stitch.

Weave in ends an block.

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