Klecks Socks

A few months ago, Addi brought out a new set of sock needles - and it seemed as if everybody on social media posted about them. So of course I wanted a set of them, too. Everytime I went to a LYS, I tried to get them, but most stores didn't have them in stock. So I was really pleased when I found a 3mm set of them at Strickschuh in Bergisch-Gladbach - even though it was the only set they had. The store owner told me that she had ordered them months ago and only received them recently.
I wanted to try them out right away, so I started a pair of socks with a simple short row pattern. It's not very sophisticated and while I was knitting them, I wasn't too happy about the design ... it just looked too blobby. But once the first sock was finished, the look rather grew on me and I decided to knit its partner.
These socks are knitted from the cuff down, with a short row heel (knitted with shadow wrap short rows). The blobby pattern is achieved with short rows.

As with some of my other sock patterns (e.g. Iceberg Socks or Battenberg Socks), this blogpost is more of a sketch or recipe than a complete pattern. It is assumed that you know how to knit socks to fit your feet.

Klecks is the German word for a large blot or splodge.


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




Materials

• 50 to 80 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors (I used about 40 grams of main color (MC) and about 20 grams of contrast color (CC)).
• 3mm needles - that can be dpns, a circular needle with a length of at least 80cm or needles that you can use to knit socks in the round - of course, if you prefer to knit socks with 2.5mm needles you can used these, too, the important point is to cast on a number of stitches that is a multiple of 3
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends
• two stitch markers to mark the half  and beginning of a round

Techniques

• 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.
• 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. 
• German Short Rows (t+p): when you turn, bring yarn to the front and pull it back so that a sort of double-stitch is created, then knit back as usual - when you have to knit the double-stitch, be careful to knit it as one stitch (see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6n561SMZXQ); this method has the advantage the no picking up of stitches is necessary. In the pattern, this stitch will be called t+p (turn and pull).
• Shadow Wrap Short Rows: the last stitch you knit (or purl) before turning, is worked into the stitch in the row below, which also leaves you with a pair of stitches that has to be worked as one in the row above. This method is shown in this YouTube video by Lee Meredith. A video by Miriam Felton that shows how to do a heel with shadow wraps can be found here on YouTube. However, the heel knitted here is knitted slightly different because here there are two rounds between the two parts of the heel, i.e. there won't be any triple stitches.

As you can see, I'm using two types of short rows - German short rows for the color pattern and shadow wrap short rows for the heel. That is just a personal preference - you can substitute one short row method for another: make sure that the stitch that would be turned back to form a double-stitch (for German short rows) is the one that would be wrapped (for Wrap-and-Turn short rows) or the one that where you'd knit into the row below (for Shadow Wrap short rows).

Instructions

Cuff

With MC CO54 sts (or another number of sts that is a multiple of 6) and join in round. Place a marker to mark the beginning of the round (called "end marker").
Knit 10 rounds of p1-k2-ribbing - while you're knitting the first round, place one marker after knitting half of the stitches (called "half marker")

Round 11: k all

Now you start the first short row sequence - still in MC.
(a) k to 2 bef half marker, t+p, p to end marker, slip end marker, p to 2 bef half marker, t+p, k to end marker
(b) k to 3 bef last double-stitch, t+p, p to end marker, p to 3 bef last double-stitch, t+p, k to end
repeat (b) until you there are only 3 sts between the end marker and the next double-stitch

If you cast on exactly 54 sts round 12 reads as follows:
(a) k25, t+p, p25, (slip end marker), p25, t+p, k25 (now you're back at the end marker)
(b) k22, t+p, p22, p22, t+p, k22
(c) k19, t+p, p19, p19, t+p, k19
(d) k16, t+p, p16, p16, t+p, k16
(e) k13, t+p, p13, p13, t+p, k13
(f) k10, t+p, p10, p10, t+p, k10
(g)k7, t+p, p7, p7, t+p, k7
(h) k4, t+p, p4, p4, t+p, k4

Round 13: k all

Change to CC
Round 14: k all
Now you knit the next short row sequence

Round 15:
k27
(a) k4, t+p, p4, (slip half marker), p4, t+p, k4 (now you're back at the half marker)
(b) k up to and including last double-stitch, k3, t+p, p to half marker, p up to and including last double-stitch, p3, t+p, k to half marker
Repeat (b) until the double-stitch is the third stitch before the end marker
k27

If you cast on exactly 54 sts, round 15 reads as follows:
k27
(a) k4, t+p, p4, (slip half marker), p4, t+p, k4 (now you're back at the half marker)
(b) k7, t+p, p7, p7, t+p, k7
(c) k10, t+p, p10, p10, t+p, k10
(d) k13, t+p, p13, p13, t+p, k13
(e) k16, t+p, p16, p16, t+p, k16
(f) k19, t+p, p19, p19, t+p, k19
(g) k22, t+p, p22, p22, t+p, k22
(h) k25, t+p, p25, p25, t+p, k25
k27

Round 16: k all

Round 17:
k27
(a) k to 2 bef end marker, t+p, p to half marker, slip half marker, p to 2 bef end marker, t+p, k to end marker
(b) k to 3 bef last double-stitch, t+p, p to half marker, p to 3 bef last double-stitch, t+p, k to end
Repeat (b) until you there are only 3 sts between the end marker and the next double-stitch
k27

If you cast on exactly 54 sts, round 17 reads as follows:
k27
(a) k25, t+p, p25, (slip half marker), p25, t+p, k25 (now you're back at the half marker)
(b) k22, t+p, p22, p22, t+p, k22
(c) k19, t+p, p19, p19, t+p, k19
(d) k16, t+p, p16, p16, t+p, k16
(e) k13, t+p, p13, p13, t+p, k13
(f) k10, t+p, p10, p10, t+p, k10
(g) k7, t+p, p7, p7, t+p, k7
(h) k4, t+p, p4, p4, t+p, k4
k27

Round 18: k all

Change back to MC

Round 19: k all

Round 20:
(a) k4, t+p, p4, (slip end marker), p4, t+p, k4 (now you're back at the end marker)
(b) k up to and including last double-stitch, k3, t+p, p to end marker, p up to and including last double-stitch, p3, t+p, k to end marker
Repeat (b) until the double-stitch is the third stitch before the half marker

If you cast on exactly 54 sts, round 20 reads as follows:
(a) k4, t+p, p4, (slip end marker), p4, t+p, k4 (now you're back at the end marker)
(b) k7, t+p, p7, p7, t+p, k7
(c) k10, t+p, p10, p10, t+p, k10
(d) k13, t+p, p13, p13, t+p, k13
(e) k16, t+p, p16, p16, t+p, k16
(f) k19, t+p, p19, p19, t+p, k19
(g) k22, t+p, p22, p22, t+p, k22
(h) k25, t+p, p25, p25, t+p, k25

Round 21: k all

Heel

In MC

Short row heels are knitted over one half of the total stitches (called the heel stitches) - depending on the shape of your foot this may be a bit tight. So, when knitting a short row heel, I usually increase the back "half" by two or three stitches to get a heel that is slightly wider. That's what is done during the first 4 rounds of the heel and this means that all the increases are on the side that contains the back stitches - after finishing the heel these stitches will be decreased again.

Round 1: k to half marker, slip marker, mk1r, k up to end marker, mk1l, slip end marker
Round 2: k all
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 once more

Round 5: k to half marker,
(a) k to one stitch before end marker, knit into the mother stitch of the next st (i.e. do a shadow wrap), turn
(b) slip shadow wrap stitch, p to one stitch before half marker, purl into the mother stitch of the next st, turn
(c) slip shadow wrap stitch, k to one stitch before the last shadow wrap, knit into the mother stitch of the next st, turn
(d) slip shadow wrap stitch, p to one stitch before the last shadow wrap, purl into the mother stitch of the next st, turn
Repeat (c) and (d) until the remaining (knitted) stitches are only one third of your heel stitches.
k to end of row (making sure to pick up the shadow wraps, i.e. to knit the twin-stitches as one stitch) and mk1l (this last increase is to avoid a hole at the gap)

Round 6: k to half marker, slip half marker, mk1r (also to avoid a hole), k to end (also making sure to pick up the shadow wraps)
Round 7 and 8: k all

Round 9: k to half marker,
(a) k two thirds of the heel stitches, knit into the mother stitch of the next st (i.e. do a shadow wrap), turn
(b) slip shadow wrap stitch, p one third of the heel stitches, purl into the mother stitch of the next stitch, turn
(c) slip shadow wrap stitch, k up to and including the twin-stitch, knit into the mother stitch of the next st (i.e. do a shadow wrap), turn
(d) slip shadow wrap stitch, p up to and including the twin-stitch, purl into the mother stitch of the next st (i.e. do a shadow wrap), turn
Repeat (c) and (d) until the twin-stitches on both sides are one stitch away from the markers (end marker and half marker),
k to end of row and mk1l

Round 10: k to half marker, slip half marker, mk1r, k to end
Round 11: k all

Now the extra stitches for the heel (four per side) must be decreased again.
Round 12: k to half marker, slip half marker, ssk, k to 2 bef end marker, k2tog
Round 13: k all
Repeat rounds 12 and 13 three more times.

Now your back to your original stitch count.

For the first sock the heel is knitted over the second half of the stitches. If you want your socks to look like mirror images of one another (as the pair in the pictures), there is only one thing you need to do differently for the second sock: knit the heel over the first half of the stitches.


Foot

Knit rows 11 to 21 of the cuff.
Knit stockinette rows in MC until the foot is 5 cm short of the desired length - or until it's time to knit your prefered toe.


Toe

Knitted in MC
My formula for toes with 3mm needles is:

• twice: 1 decrease row, 2 normal rows (k all stitches)
• twice: 1 decrease row, 1 normal row
• and then decrease rows only ... until only a third of your total stitches are left, then graft in stockinette

With 54 sts this means
Round 1 (decrease row): * k1, ssk, to 3 bef marker, k2tog, k1 repeat from * to end of round
Round 2: k all
Round 3: k all
Round 4 = Row 1
Round 5: k all
Round 6: k all
Round 7 = Row 1
Round 8: k all
Round 9 = Row 1
Round 10: k all
Rounds 11 to 15  = Row 1
Now there are only 18 stitches left. Distribute on two needles (9 stitches each) and graft in stockinette stitch.

Knitting vs. Crochet - Part II

As readers of this blog may know, I like designs that are a bit complicated :) But once they work, I like to use the idea more than once. An easy way to re-use a design idea is to use it both for knitting and for crochet.

About two years ago, I published a blog post with four designs for fingerless gloves - and all of them with both a knitting and a crochet version. Here are three more designs - with a knitting and a crochet version; two of them for fingerless gloves and one for a scarf. All the patterns linked here are free.


Helgoland Mitts & La Chocolatière Mitts
Started around the thumb these mitts are worked flat with a wave pattern and in two colors. One mitt is knitted in one piece which minimizes the number of ends to weave in :)
The knitted version is mainly worked in garter stitch and the crochet version with single crochet through the back loop which gives them more texture.

Helgoland Mitts (knitting version) 
La Chocolatière Mitts (crochet version)




Triangulation Wrist Warmers & Sankaku Wrist Warmers
These fingerless gloves are also worked in one piece, but they are started as a triangle that grows from the outside of the wrist, then worked on a bias and finished at the thumb. Both are nice to showcase your variegated yarn.

Triangulation Wrist Warmers (knitting version)
Sankaku Wrist Warmers (crochet version)

Little Rectangles Scarf & Rettangolini Scarf 
Modular and worked in layers that consist of five rectangles each, this scarf is also a fun way to use your variegated yarn to great effect.
The knitted version is worked all in garter stitch, but you need to be able to do a knitted cast on, a backwards loop cast on and to pick up and knit stitches from the selvedge.
The crochet version is worked in double crochets, and you need to be able to do a chainless double foundation stitch.

Little Rectangles Scarf (knitting version)
Rettangolini Scarf (crochet version)

Braid Theory Cowl

For Christmas I wanted to knit a new cowl for my Mum. So I took her to the yarn store and asked her to choose a yarn she liked. She picked a fluffy bulky yarn with a part of mohair, i.e. something far out of yarn comfort zone, because I prefer yarn that's a lot thinner and also yarn that you can frog at least a few times ... and that's difficult with mohair yarn. Plus, the yarn had no color gradient at all, so my usual idea of doing something with short rows wouldn't show up at all.

After only one false start, I came up with the idea of very thick cables that would show up even with this yarn: a cowl that is knitted flat all in k1p1-ribbing. Since it is knitted in ribbing it is completely reverseable. This comfy cowl is also superlong and will fit three times around your neck.

Usually, I'm really bad at inventing names for my patterns. In case of this pattern I was searching the web for inspiration - looking up everything relating to "Zopf" (the German name for cables in knitting). To my delight, I found that there is actually a branch of mathematics that is called Braid Theory which started out as a study of the geometric properties of braids, but then found other fields of application as well.
If you want to know more about Braid Theory, here's the link to the Wikipedia article or here's a link to a paper on the subject "An Introduction to Braid Theory" by Maurice Chiodo.


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






Materials

• 3 skeins (=150 grams) of bulky yarn - I used Lana Grossa Lala Berlin Fluffy (here's the link to the yarn's Ravelry page)
• 5mm knitting needles
• a cabling needles
• scrap yarn and crochet hook for the provisonal CO
• tapestry needle for grafting and to weave in ends
• a removable stitch marker to mark RS - a safety pin or some scrap yarn works as well

Gauge and Size
The finished piece measures 23 cm at its widest point - and 170 cm in circumference. Ir fits around my neck three times.
I didn't knit a swatch, but measured on the finished cowl 17 sts in k1p1-ribbing gave 10 cm in width, and about 20 rows (also k1p1-ribbing) gave 10 cm in height.

Techniques and Notation

• 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: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam. Depending on the pattern (stockinette, garter etc.), different ways of moving the tapestry needle must be used. For k1p1-ribbing, I used the technique described in this blogpost by Sunday Knits.
  A really good series of grafting was written by Joni Coniglio and is available on Interweave - in the 2nd article of the series she explains how to graft ribbing and also explains how to avoid a jog of one half-stitch, e.g. by making sure to pick up the first half-stitch of the provisional CO. 
• Cabling: A technique to cross one group of stitches over another. In this pattern the following abbreviations will be used.
• C20F-rib: put the first 10 sts on a cable needle and hold it in front of your piece, knit the following 10 sts from the left-hand needle in k1p1 ribbing, now knit the stitches from the cable needle in k1p1 ribbing
• C20B-rib: put the first 10 sts on a cable needle and hold it on the back of your knitting, knit the following 10 sts from the left-hand needel in k1p1 ribbing, now knit the stitches from the cable needle in k1p1 ribbing

Instructions

Provisionally CO 40 sts
Setup Row: k all

Row 1 (RS): * k1 p1 repeat from * to end of row
Row 2 (WS): * k1 p1 repeat from * to end of row
Repeat rows 1 and 2 for times more
Row 11 (RS): * k1 p1 repeat from * four more times, C20F-rib, * k1 p1 repeat from * to end of row
Row 12 (WS) = Row 2
Row 13 (RS) = Row 1
Row 14 (WS) = Row 2
Repeat rows 13 and 14 three more times
Row 21 (RS): C20B-rib, C20B-rib
Rows 22 - 30 = Rows 12 - 20
Row 31 (RS) = Row 11
Row 32 (WS) = Row 2
Row 33 (RS) = Row 1
Row 34 (WS) = Row 2
Repeat rows 33 and 34 14 more times
Now you've just finished row 60.

Repeat rows 1 to 60 four more times.
Then knit rows 1 to 58.

Put the stitches from the provisional CO on your second needle and graft in ribbing - as follows:

Setup sequence:

• Front Needle: insert needle purlwise in first sts and leave it
• Back Needle: insert needle purlwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle knitwise into next stitch and leave it - make sure that the first stitch on the back needle is the half-stitch mentioned above (see Techniques and Notation)
• Front Needle:  insert needle knitwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle knitwise into next stitch and leave it
• Back Needle: insert needle knitwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle purlwise into next stitch and leave it

Now repeat the following sequence until you've used up all your stitches

• Front Needle:  insert needle purlwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle purlwise into next stitch and leave it
• Back Needle: insert needle purlwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle knitwise into next stitch and leave it
• Front Needle:  insert needle knitwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle knitwise into next stitch and leave it
• Back Needle: insert needle knitwise in first sts and slip it from needle, insert needle purlwise into next stitch and leave it

Weave in ends and block gently.

Edelweiss - Flower Ornament

Where I live, carnival is quite important. I usually don't go to carnival events, but this season a friend had bought quite a few tickets and asked me whether I wanted to come and bring my mom. Only after I'd accepted I learned that I had to wear fancy dress for it :/
Since I already had a fancy dress dirndl, I decided to go for an "Alpine" look, by trying to create something like an edelweiss and wear it in my hair.
So, I crocheted several of these little edelweiss flowers and glued them onto small jaw clips. Of course, they can be used to decorate other objects as well ...
The pattern is given in written form and as a chart.

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






Materials

• I used DK weight cotton
• 3mm crochet hook
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

When I put 8 of these flowers on my kitchen scales, they showed about 10 grams. So, I guess 1 flower weighs about 1.5 grams, but since these scales are not exact with such a small weight, I cannot be exact.

Techniques
Besides, chain stitches, single crochets and slip stitches, you need to be able to do a magic ring. Here's a YouTube video by MJ Carlos that shows how to do it. If you don't want to do a magic loop, you can alternatively start with a ring of 6 chains, work rounds 2 and 3 and afterwards sew the little ring closed with your yarn tail.


Chart

On the right hand side you can see a chart of the pattern (click to enlarge).

Round 1 is a magic ring.
Round 2 consists of petals that are worked into the back loops of the sc's of the magic ring.
Round 3 consists of petals that are worked into the front loops of the same sc's.
Since rounds 2 and 3 are basically worked on top of each other, there are charts for each round, the rounds that have already been worked are depicted in light grey.

Instructions

Round 1: Do a magic ring, and work 6 sc into the ring (your piece should now look like illustration 1), close the ring with a slip stitch and draw the loop closed

Round 2 (outer, bigger petals): sl st into the back loop of the first sc, do five chain sts (4 chains and 1 turning chain, see illustration 2), do 4 sc's into the chains and connect to ring by doing a slip st into the back loop of the next sc - this loop is marked pink in illustration 2. Now your piece should look similar to illustration 3.
Repeat 4 more times, the back loops into which to place the slip stitches are marked pink in illustration 4.
For the sixth petal do 5 chains and 4 sc's into the chains and connect the last petal with a slip stitch into the front loop of the first sc of the ring.

Round 3 (inner, smaller petals): do 3 chain sts (2 chains and 1 turning chain), do 2 sc's into the chains and connect to ring with a slip stitch into the front loop of the next sc of the ring.
Repeat 4 more times.
For the sixth petal, do 3 chains and 2 sc's into the chains and connect to the ring with a slip stitch into the front loop of the first sc of the ring

Fasten off and weave in ends.

Seitwärts Hat - or Sideways with Stripes

This easy hat can be knitted up fast - using about one skein of yarn plus some leftovers of the same weight. Apart from some intermediate techniques, it is quite an easy pattern. The techniques are the use of the magic CO at the start and grafting at the end. So it may be a good project for a beginner who wants to practice these techniques.

As you may have guessed, seitwärts is the German word for sideways.


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






Materials

• about 60 to 70 grams of DK weight yarn - I used one full skein (as MC) and the leftovers from 3 other skeins (CC1, CC2, CC3)
• 3.5mm circular needles
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends
• two stitch-markers

Techniques

• Judy's Magic Cast-On is a technique that gives you live stitches on both sides of your needle - it is generally used for toe-up socks (e.g. in this pattern), but it can be used for other purposes as well. Here's a written description (from Knitty) and here's a YouTube-video by Cat Bordhi and another YouTube-video by Very Pink Knits. 
• Grafting in Stockinette Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam that looks like stockinette stitch https://youtu.be/W7i5JwEReW0
• Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam that looks like garter stitch - as shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.
• If you don't like grafting, you can use the Three Needle Bind Off as an alternative: https://youtu.be/Ph93jWSzTa0

Gauge and Measurements
In stockinette stitch, I had the following gauge: 34 rows gave 10 cm in height and 24 stitches gave 10 cm in width.
Since you're knitting sideways until you've reached the desired girth the height of your hat (i.e. the width of your knitting) is all you need to get right at the beginning. The hat I knitted with the gauge above measures 21 cm in height, so if you want to a different height, adjust your CO accordingly.

Instructions
With MC do a magic CO of 2x50 stitches - i.e. on each of your needles there are 50 sts.
Turn your piece so that you're looking at the side with the garter stitch bumps.
Set-up Row (WS): ktbl 15, pm, ptbl 35 (now your at the point where you change to the other needle and turn), p35, pm, k15
Row 1 (RS): sl1, k all
Row 2 (WS): sl1, k to marker (or k14), p to next marker (or p70), k to end (or k15)
Repeat rows 1 and 2 nine more times and then insert stripes:
In CC1: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC2: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC3: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC2: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC1: knit rows 1 and 2 twice

Then continue rows 1 and 2 in MC until the hat is wide enough to fit your head.

Of course, you can do any striping pattern you want. The striping pattern I choose is mainly due to the amount of yarn I had left over, plus I wanted something non-semetrical.

Once the lower edge fits around your head (when you stretch it a bit), finish the hat as follows:

• Knit 50 stitches (to half of the row). Make sure, that you are really in the middle of the row, i.e. count your stitches, because it isn't fun to undo grafting if you have not counted correctly (believe me!).
  Graft 35 sts in stockinette and 15 sts in garter stitch.
• Alternatively, turn the hat inside out and do a three needle BO.

Weave in ends and block.