Skein Hash Cowl

If you're anything like me, you will have lots of yarn leftovers in your stash - not enough of one type of yarn to make something new, but also too much (and too good) to throw it away. I had long thought about a way to mix up leftovers to make them into something whole, but it took me a while to design a nice little pattern for it.

So, here's an interesting way of stashbusting and using up some beautiful yarn leftovers. It's a cowl that is knitted flat - started with a provisional CO and joined in the round by grafting. It's knitted all in garter stitch - i.e. you do not have to purl. Basically, it's a chevron pattern on a bias.

The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, but I have included a way to calculate the number of stitches for other yarn weights and as well.

As to the name: Actually Skein Hash is a cryptographic hash function. These functions are used to calculate digital signatures and have many other applications in information security. When I saw the name I thought that this was too good to be missed as the name for knitting pattern - it was actually one of the rare cases where I had a name before I had a pattern to suit it :)
And since hash means (according to Webster's Dictionary) "confuse, muddle" it fits perfectly, since this is exactly what this pattern does with the yarn from your leftover skeins.


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






Materials

• about 130 to 180 grams of yarn of the same weight (I used fingering weight yarn)
• knitting needles (straight or circular) that fits your yarn weight (I used 3.25 mm needles)
• a removable stitch marker to mark the right side of the piece
• scrap yarn and a crochet hook for the provisional CO
• a tapestry needle for grafting and to weave in ends

Techniques and Abbreviations

• 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 in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam - this technique is shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.
• Carrying yarn up:  When you're knitting chevrons on a bias you have to BO or CO at the beginning or end of a row. And since you're using three strands of yarn, you need to bring the yarn that you're not using (for the current row) with you. This can be done by twisting the unused yarn with the current yarn after every BO or CO stitch - similar to the technique of carrying yarn up on the side of your work - this technique is shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter.
• kyok: centered double increase: knit, yarn over, knit into one stitch (as shown in this YouTube video by So, I make stuff)
• sl1 k2tog psso: slip one stitch, knit the next two stitches together and pass the slipped stitch over (as shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter)

Since this cowl is made from leftovers, there is a high potential for many ends to weave in. Here are two techniques that may be helpful to avoid this:

• Weave in ends as you go as shown in this YouTube video by So, I make stuff.  
• Frankfurt knot: a way to connect yarn with a strong knot - as shown in this YouTube video by nadelspiel.

Gauge and Size
In garter stitch 5 stitches gave 2 cm in width and 8 rows (4 ridges) gave 2 cm in height.
The cowl that I knitted measures about 24 cm in width and 124 cm in circumference.

The lenght is adjusted easily, by knitting more or fewer rows.
If you want to change the width, knit a swatch in garter, calculate the number of stitches you'd need to cast on for the desired width, multiply this number by 2 (because of the chevron on a bias pattern) and then cast the number of stitches nearest to that that is a multiple of 10.

• Example Calculation 1: If your swatch 9 stitches give 5 cm in width - and you want your finished piece to measure 25 cm in width. 45 stitches would normally give 25 cm. Multiplied by 2 this gives 90 stitches to cast on with that yarn - and since 90 is divisible by 10 you don't need to add or subtract from that number.
• Example Calculation 2 (with a bigger yarn): Your swatch shows that 3 stitches give 2 cm in with - and you want a 22 cm wide cowl: 33 stitches would have to be cast on for a cowl in plain garter stitch (without the chevron pattern). Multiplied by 2 it'd give 66 stitches - the nearest multiple of 10 is 70, so you have to cast on 70 sts.

Using Your Leftovers
Go stash diving and find about 200 grams of yarn of the same weight - I used fingering weight yarn of the same part of the color spectrum (blue-ish), but I think color combinations would work as well. You always work with 3 skeins at a time, the one row is knitted with the skein 1, the next with skein 2, the next with skein 3, and then you start again with skein 1. Once one strand runs out of yarn, just connect the next one to it.
I wanted to rather consistent color distribution (or as consistent as possible). That's why I seperated some of the leftover skeins into two skeins and used them at different times. This will even increase the numbers of ends to weave in, but I prefered this over a color change that seemed to abrupt.


Instructions
You will always work with three colors. After each row, you change to the next color.

Provisionally CO 120 sts
Row 0 (C1, WS): k all
Row 1 (C2, RS): k2, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only 8 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso, k1
Row 2 (C3, WS): k all
Row 3 (C1, RS): k3, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only7 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso
Row 4 (C2, WS): BO5 (while weaving in C1), k to end
Row 5 (C3, RS): k4, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there is only one sts left, k1
Row 6 (C1, WS): k all, CO5 while weaving in C2
Row 7 (C2, RS): *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * to end
Row 8 (C3. WS): k all
Row 9 (C1, RS): k1, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only 9 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso, k2
Row 10 (C2, WS): k all
Row 11 (C3, RS): k2, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only 8 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso, k1
Row 12 (C1, WS): k all
Row 13 (C2, RS): k3, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only7 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso
Row 14 (C3, WS): BO5 (while weaving in C1), k to end

Row 15 (C1, RS): k4, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there is only one sts left, k1
Row 16 (C2, WS): k all, CO5 while weaving in C2
Row 17 (C3, RS): *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * to end
Row 18 (C1. WS): k all
Row 19 (C2, RS): k1, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only 9 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso, k2
Row 20 (C3, WS): k all
Row 21 (C1, RS): k2, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only 8 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso, k1
Row 22 (C2, WS): k all
Row 23 (C3, RS): k3, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only7 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso
Row 24 (C1, WS): BO5 (while weaving in C1), k to end
Row 25 (C2, RS): k4, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there is only one sts left, k1
Row 26 (C3, WS): k all, CO5 while weaving in C2
Row 27 (C1, RS): *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * to end
Row 28 (C2. WS): k all
Row 29 (C3, RS): k1, *kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso k3 repeat from * until there are only 9 sts left, kyok, k3, sl1 k2tog psso, k2
Row 30 (C1, WS): k all

Repeat until your cowl has reached the desired lenght - make sure to end with a row 8, 18 or 28. Leave a tail for grafting. Place the stitches from the provisional CO on the second needle, hold the ends together (RS out) as shown in the picture and graft in garter stitch ... or if you want to be very precise about things follow the instructions below ...

Actually, the row you're grafting is an RS row (a row 9, 19 or 29 to be precise) which means that there should be increases and decreases in order to keep the chevron pattern ... I solved this by sometimes treating 3 stitches as 1 stitch. To be more precise, everytime, that there'd be a scheduled double decrease in row 9 (or 19 or 29), I inserted the needle not into one stitch but into three at a time on the front needle. and every time that there'd be a scheduled double increase in row 9 (meaning a double decrease on the corresponding provisional CO row), I inserted the needle into three stitches at a time on the back needle.

Even though, I think I didn't count correctly a few times, the finished grafting row looks OK.

Weave in all the ends if necessary and block.