Random Bubbles Lace Scarf

As light as gossamer and as delicate as flower petals - this scarf is knitted from only one 50 gram skein of lace weight yarn.

Exploring the random lace technique a bit further - I wanted to knit a shaped scarf. And to make the counting a bit easier, I thought I'd use the shaping of the Seifenblasen Lace Scarf - which worked quite well in the end. This means that random lace sections will be alternated with sections of garter stitch with short rows.

Please note: This is not a stitch-by-stitch pattern. The Random sections are knitted, well, at random – giving you a unique piece of knitware. Therefore, there are no detailed pattern instructions for these sections. However, the instructions give you rules and guidelines on how to produce a piece of random lace that looks similar to the one in the pictures.




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русский / Russian Version: lutik (Ravelry name) made a video (in Russian) explaining how to do this scarf. It's available on YouTube here.

Materials or What You Need to Knit

• Yarn, I’d suggest something that blocks well (i.e. with a high percentage of wool) in fingering weight or finer. For the scarf in the pictures, I used a bit less than 50 grams of lace weight yarn Lace Top by Lana Stop 
• Needles (a bit bigger than what the yarn calls for), I used 3.25 mm needles.
• Tapestry needle to weave in ends
• The ability and the willingness to count your stitches over and over again … since there are not pattern repeats or anything that could help, it’s easy to lose track of where you are in the row. This is a concentration exercise, i.e. NOT something that I would take to my local knitting group. Since it’s be impossible for me to follow a conversation and count stitches at the same time, it’d make me very unsocial :)
• The patience to knit a piece that will look extremely crumpled and not very attractive, while you are knitting it. I will look so much better after blocking - see picture below. 

Techniques and Abbreviations

• Short rows are a technique to shape your knitting by not finishing a row but turning before you reach the end. To avoid hole there are several techniques - the most well-known are "wrap and turn" ("w+t" for short, shown for example in this YouTube video by Garnstudio Drops Desing) or German short rows with double stitches (as shown in this YouTube video by Very Pink Knits). The pattern is written with "wraps and turns", but you can also use German short rows - just make sure that the double stitch is the one that would have been wrapped (if you had used the "wrap and turn" technique).
• Other abbreviations for stitches used here - and links to how-to videos
• k2tog (right-leaning decrease): https://youtu.be/ptZsAT770i8
• ssk (left-leaning decrease): https://youtu.be/RGwcYW3GG3M
• centered double decrease (or sl2tog, k1, p2sso): https://youtu.be/en3Yq2er4RI
• yo (increase): https://youtu.be/3QbFhh8u4L8
• yo twice (double increase): https://youtu.be/8NEAw0qtR70
• k yo k into one stitch: https://youtu.be/yAQxguVIRYY

Instructions to knit the scarf

CO12 sts

Step 1: Knit one random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace

Step 2: Knit one increasing short row section (see instructions below)

Repeat steps 1 and 2 until your scarf is about half as wide as you want it to be and knit another random lace section (16 rows of random lace)
(for me this was the case after 14 random lace sections)

Step 3: Knit a neutral short row section (see instructions below)
Step 4: Knit on random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace

Step 5: Knit a decreasing short row section (see instructions below)
Step 6: Knit a random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until there are 12 sts on your needles (the number of increasing short row sections should be equal to the number of decreasing short row sections)

Bind off loosly.
Weave in ends and block.

How to Knit Random Lace Section

• Basically, knit decreases and yarn-overs in a random manner and make sure that after a row you have the same number of stitches you started with. That’s it.
• Distribute the increases and decreases evenly within one row, i.e. don’t make too many decreases before you do increases (and vice-versa) – or else your piece will look crooked – at least before blocking.
• After a bit of trying, I only counted the increases and decreases, i.e. “plus one” for every yarn over and “minus one” for every decrease, and making sure that the count is zero at the end of a row. This worked fine for the first few random sections (i.e. section with less than 25 or so stitches), but after the rows got longer, it became difficult to keep track and I had to recount the row. I guess it doesn’t matter if you lose one stitch in a row, as long as you make it up in the next one.
• To have a knit-effect on RS, I only did “knit-decreases” (e.g. k2tog, ssk, sl1-k2tog-psso) on RS and purl-decreases (e.g. p2tog, p2togtbl, p3tog) on WS. For increases I only did yarn overs or yarn over twice (instead of mk1-stitches) to get “lacy” holes.
• To get a nice edging, I started every RS row with sl1 purl-wise and every WS row with sl1 knit-wise.
• About 20-25 percent of my stitches per row were yarn overs – with of course the matching number of decreases. If you do more, the lace will look more delicate; if you do less, it will look more structure – but both that’s a question of taste.
• As a last advice, do not overthink this! If you get your stitch count right (roughly), it is practically impossible to mess this up.

Short Row Section - Increasing

Before knitting the section, devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section.
(Since the scarf is started with 12 sts, for the 1st short row section X is 3 (12/4=3), then there are 4 sts more on your needles and for the 2nd short row section X=4 (16/4=4), for the 3rd X=5 (20/4=5), for the 4th X=6 and so on.)

Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to last 2 sts, kfb, k

Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before end, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k

Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k

Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k

Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end

During this short row section your stitch count was increased by 4 stitches.

Short Row Section - Neutral

Devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section. (Here X should be one higher as X for the last increasing section.)
Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end

Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before end, w+t, k to end

Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to end

Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to end

Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end

The number of stitches wasn't changed.

Short Row Section - Decreasing

Before knitting the section, devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section. (X for the first decreasing short row section should be equal to X in the neutral short row section - for the following sections, X will always be one less than for the section before.)

Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k

Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k

Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including the last wrapped stitch, k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k

Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including the last wrapped stitch, k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k

Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end

During this short row section your stitch count was decreased by 4 stitches.

This design was featured at Oombawka Design Link & Share Wednesday - Link Party 108. Thank you!

Garudasana Yoga Socks

In summer I like feeling the floor under my bare feet. Unfortunately, summers here in Germany or Switzerland can get pretty cool, so I often need something to warm my feet a bit.  That's why I like wearing yoga socks (even when I'm too lazy to do my sun salutations in the morning). They keep the feet (a bit) warm while still giving you the a "summery" feeling under your soles.

On this blog there are already two patterns for yoga socks. One (very easy) in the round (loom-style) pattern and a second sideways knitted flat pattern. Both were fun to make but a bit plain. That's why I decided to try something less boring and I experimented a bit with horizontal cables ... so here's the result: Yoga socks knitted flat and sideways with a cable pattern on the back of the foot.

These yoga socks are called Garudasana, because the horizontal cabling reminds me of the crossed legs and arms in Eagle pose (Garudasana). 

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The pattern is written in a way that it can be adapted to most foot sizes. However, I have included the stitch and row counts that I have used - written in purple.

Materials

• a total of about 25 to 30 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors
• three knitting needles (3mm), I used both circular and dpns (short dpns for the narrow bits at start and finish, circulars for the wide bit in the middle
• scrap yarn, for the provisional CO and to secure stitches
• a crochet hook for the provisional CO
• tapestry needle, for kitchener stitch and to weave in ends

Techniques and Terminology

• Provisional Cast-On: My preferred method of a provisional cast-on is the crochet provisional CO – as shown in this YouTube Video
• Grafting or kitchener stitch: The basic stockinette kitchener stitch is shown in this YouTube-Video by PurlSoho.
• Backwards Loop Cast-On: See this YouTube-Video by planetpurl.
• Ridges: Throughout the pattern, the term ridges will be used. One ridge is a sequence of four rows - two k-rows followed by two p-rows.

Gauge

Before starting to knit measure the circumference of your ankles. You will be asked to knit until you have reached half of that circumference.

As to the width of your stitches, I had 13 stitches to 5 cm. However, this is one of the cases where knitting a swatch is actually more work than casting on “normally” and ripping back after a few rows if the piece is too wide or too narrow.

Because the pattern (horizontal ribs) is very stretchy and the widening because of the holes in the middle, these socks need negative ease to fit snugly. This means that they have to be knitted smaller than the wearer's foot. That's why I'd recommend to make these socks at least three centimeters smaller than the measured circumference.

Example: the circumference of my ankles measures 21 cm - the circumference of the socks I knitted is only 17 to 18 cm (depending how it's being held).

Or in ridges: for a sideways version of yoga socks without a horizontal cable pattern - I equalled the circumference with 22 ridges (11 for the front, 11 for the back) - for the Garudasana yoga socks, I knitted 9 ridges for the back (narrow part) and 10 for the front (i.e. 19 in total) with the same yarn weight and same needles.

General Construction

The picture below shows the general construction (click on the image to enlarge it).

You start with a narrow part, i.e. half of the intended lenght of the sock (for me this was about 8 cm - or 20 stitches for the first provisional CO). This part will later be at the above your heel or under your sole.

Then you knit half of the sock's circumference in horizontal ribs and afterwards provisionally CO the other half of the intended stitches, i.e. your starting the front part. The part that is knitted next is used to cover the front of your feet (wide part in the middle).
In order to center the cabling in the middle of this part, the number of ridges in this wide (front) part must be even.

When this wide (front) part is finished, the half of the stitches are put on scrap yarn to be later grafted to the firt provisional CO. Then you continue in another narrow strip of horizontal ribs. You finish by grafting  two seams.

So the piece that you knit will look a bit like a Tetris piece :)

  

Instructions

  

With scrap yarn, provisionally CO 20 stitches

1st narrow part

Start with yarn A, leaving a tail long enough for grafting 20 sts.

First ridge

Row 1: k all sts

Row 2: sl1 p-wise, k to end

Row 3: sl1 p-wise, p to end

Row 4: sl1 k-wise, p to end

Next ridges

Row 5: sl1 k-wise, k to end

Row 6: sl1 p-wise, k to end

Row 7: sl1 p-wise, p to end

Row 8: sl1 k-wise, p to end

Repeat rows 5 to 8 until the piece is as high as half of your ankle circumference. End with a row 8.

Count the number of ridges, this number is called X - it will be needed later to calculate the number of ridges to knit until the cabling starts.

For my socks I knitted a total of 9 ridges in this part.

Middle part (wide) - includes horizontal cabling

On a third needle prepare 20 more provisionally CO stitches.

Knit a row 5 and then go on knitting the 20 new stitches, i.e. the row is now 20 stitches wider (see pictures 1 and 2).

Knit one ridge less than half the number of ridges knitted during the first (narrow section), i.e. X/2-2 ridges. Then the cabling is started right in the center of the middle part.

Example: if you knitted 10 ridges during the narrow part (X=10), then knit 3 ridges (10/2 = 5; 5-2 = 3). In my case, I knitted 9 rigdes during the narrow part, and 3 ridges before I started the cabling. To center the cables, the wide (front) parts needs to have an even number of ridges. That's why I ended up with the narrow parts a bit shorter (9 ridges) than the middle part (10 ridges).

Cabling:

The cabling consists of four ridges - two in color A, two in color B, i.e. 16 rows. The horizontal cables are a bit tricky, that's why I have tried to illustrate the steps with photos.

C-Row 1: sl1 k-wise, k to end

C-Row 2: sl1 p-wise, k to end

C-Row 3: sl1 p-wise, p to end

C-Row 4: sl1 k-wise, p7, BO8, p8, BO8, p8

C-Row 5: sl1 k-wise, k7, CO8 (with backwards-Loop CO), k8, CO8, k8 - you have now created two holes through which the first ridge in color B will be drawn.

C-Row 6: sl1 p-wise, k to end
C-Row 7: sl1 p-wise, p to end
C-Row 8: sl1, k-wise,  p7, BO8, p8, BO8, p8 (your piece should look like in picture 3)

You can now cut yarn A.
Change color and continue with yarn B.

C-Row 9: sl1 k-wise, k7, CO8 (with backwards loop CO) and draw the tip of your needle and a Loop of your working yarn through the hole made by the BO/CO in C-Rows 4 and 5, make sure to not twist your new CO and to keep the working yarn over the new CO (see picture 4), k8, CO8 and repeat what you did through the first hole, k8. There will be yarn wrapped throuhg the holes as well, when you knit the next row, you will draw it back.
C-Row 10: sl1 p-wise, and k all stitches to the end, this means that when you are knitting the newly CO stitches you have to draw both needles through the hole and also draw the loop of yarn through the hole - do this for both holes.  (see picture 5).

C-Row 11: sl1 p-wise, p to end - again, when knitting over the newly CO stitches draw both needles through the hole and also draw a loop of string, make sure to not twist your stitches and keep the loop of working yarn over your stitches (see picture 6), again there will be a loop of yarn wrapped through the two holes (see picture 7)
C-Row 12: sl1 k-wise, p7, BO8, after binding off the last of the 8 stitches, put the last stitch on the left-hand needle, draws both needle tips through the hole, draw the yarn through, and put the last stitch back on the right-hand needle, p8, BO8 and repeat what you did through the first hole, p8 (your piece should now look like in picture 8)

C-Row 13: sl1 k-wise, k7, CO8 (with backwards-Loop CO), k8, CO8, k8 (see picture 9)

C-Row 14: sl1 p-wise, k to end
C-Row 15: sl1 p-wise, p to end
C-Row 16: sl1 k-wise, p to end

Continue knitting normal rows 5-8 (i.e. normal ridges) the same number of times you knitted them in the wide part before the cabling started.
However, in the last ridge knit row 8 only up to and including the 20th stitch. Put the last 20 stitch on a stitch holder - they will be grafted to the 1st provisional CO later.

2nd narrow part

Knit rows 5-8 (i.e. normal ridges) the same amount of times you knitted during the first narrow part (i.e. X times, for my socks this was 9 times). However, do not knit the last row of the last ridge.
Picture 10 shows how the socks while knitting this part.

Cut yarn B but leave a tail long enough to graft 20 stitches.

Capture the stitches of the 2nd provisional CO on a needle. Hold together with the stitches still on your needle (right sides out) and graft with normal kitchener stitch (stockinette graft).

Capture stitches from 1st provisional CO on a needle and the stitches you put on scrap yarn at the end of the middle part. Hold needles together (right sides out)  and graft with normal kitchener stitch (stockinette graft).

Weave in Ends.

Make two.

Horizontal Cables II

About a year ago, I experimented a bit with horizontal cables (see this blogpost) … at the time, this idea was prompted by a crochet pattern I saw on Ravelry: Comet by Tanja Oswald. However, I didn’t really like how my horizontal cables turned out and didn't have any idea on how to use it in a project.

That changed recently, when I started to knit yoga socks again – and tried to knit them sideways. After the simple sideways version, I tried a cabled one. This time, I'm happier with the look of my horizontal cables.

 

 

I guess I will knit a second one - with the colors mirror-inverted and see what they look like on my feet. 

 

What's more, I even have an idea for a name (usually my weak point :) ... So I might publish the pattern soon.

 

Sideways Yoga Socks

I love to knit yoga socks … they are comfy to wear and can even be used to warm the feet a bit in summer ... when you tend to have cold feet, but still want the feeling walking barefoot (sort of).

As a challenge to myself, I wanted to knit them flat, but without cutting the yarn while knitting one socks. This pattern is what I came up with. 

So if you don't like to knit in the round, this pattern is for you :)

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Materials

• about 25 grams of fingering weight yarn
• 3 knitting needles (3mm), it’s best to use double pointed needles (e.g. one circular and one straight needle)
• a tapestry needle for grafting and to weave in ends
• scrap yarn for crochet provisional CO
• a crochet hook for crochet provisional CO

Techniques

• Provisional Cast-On: My preferred method of a provisional cast-on is the crochet provisional CO – as shown in this YouTube Video
• Grafting: Joni Coniglio has written a series on grafting (“5 Grafting Myths”) on the knitting daily blog. All her post can be found here: http://www.knittingdaily.com/author/joni-coniglio/  ).
  The techniques used here, can be found in this blog post.

Gauge and What to Measure
Before starting to knit measure the circumference of your ankles. You will be asked to knit until you have reached half of that circumference.

As to the width of your stitches, I had 13 stitches to 5 cm. However, this is one of the cases where knitting a swatch is actually more work than casting on “normally” and ripping back after a few rows if the piece is too wide or too narrow.

General Construction

The piece that you knit looks a bit like a Tetris piece ... however, you'll never see it flat and complete, because one edge is grafted to another before the piece is finished.

The picture below shows the general construction. You start with half of the intended lenght of the sock (for me this was about 7.5 cm - or 18 stitches for the first provisional CO).
Then you knit half of the sock's circumference in horizontal ribs and afterwards provisionally CO the other half of the intended stitches. The part that is knitted next is used to cover the back of the foot and the front part of your ankles (wide part in the middle).
When this is finished, the first provisional CO is grafted to the upper stitches creating the first tube of your sock.
Then you continue in another narrow strip of horizontal ribs and finish with a second graft to complete the second part of the tube.

The photo below shows how the finished socks look when they are lying flat.



Instructions

With scrap yarn provisionally CO 18 sts

Row 0: k all stitches, but leave a tail long enough to graft your stitches (one meter is more than enough)

Row 1 (RS): sl1 p-wise, p to end
Row 2 (WS): sl1 k-wise, p to end
Row 3 (RS): sl1 k-wise, k to end
Row 4 (WS): sl1 p-wise, k to end

Repeat rows 1 to 4 until the piece is as high as half of your ankle circumference. End with a row 4. Count the number of pattern repeats you have knitted, this number will be called A.
Note: since this pattern is very stretchy, I’d recommend stretching the piece while measuring it.

With a second piece of scrap yarn and another needle, provisionally CO 18 stitches. Then continue knitting row 4 over the 18 newly cast-on stitches (see pictures 1 and 2).

Continue knitting rows 1 to 4 A times, i.e. the same amount of times you knitted it during the narrow part in the beginning, but end with row 2 of the last repeat.

Now it’s time for the first graft. Slip your working needle to the side without your working yarn. This will be your front needle.

Capture the stitches from the first provisional CO on a needle – this will be your back needle (see pictures 3 and 4). Fold the piece right side out.
With the tail of yarn you left in the beginning start grafting as follows (this is called "Garter stitch grafting (purl ridge row on the front needle and knit valley row on the back needle)"in Joni Coniglio's blog post cited in the Techniques section):

• First stitch: on front needle k-wise through, leave stitch on needles; on back needle k-wise through, leave stitch on needles
• Than repeat: Front needle: p-wise through first stitch on needle, slip it off; k-wise through next stitch, leave it on
• Back needle: p-wise through first stitch on needle, slip it off; k-wise through next stitch, leave it on

Repeat until all stitches on back needle are grafted. There should be 18 stitches left on the working needle.

Slip the remaining stitches back to the other end of the needle (where your working yarn is) and continue with rows 3 and 4 of the pattern.

Now continue repeats of rows 1 to 4 – one time less than A. Knit rows 1 and 2 and start with the second graft.

Capture the stitches of the 2nd provisional CO on a needle – this will be your back needle. Fold piece right sides out. Cut yarn but leave a tail long enough to complete the graft as follows (this is called "Garter stitch grafting (knit valley row on the front needle and purl ridge row on the back needle)" in Joni Coniglio's blog post cited in the Techniques section):

• First stitch: on front needle p-wise through, leave stitch on needles; on back needle p-wise through, leave stitch on needles
• Than repeat: Front needle: k-wise through first stitch on needle, slip it off; p-wise through next stitch, leave it on
• Back needle: k-wise through first stitch on needle, slip it off; p-wise through next stitch, leave it on

Weave in ends. Make two.