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.


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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.

La Chocolatière Mitts

Shortly after finishing my knitted Helgoland Mitts, I thought that it might be a good idea to pursue the same concept in crochet ... and it actually worked better than I had hoped. As with the Helgoland Mitts, it took me quite a while to write up the pattern, given that I finished them in March. But - finally - here it is.

These mitts are crocheted flat and each in one piece. They are started at the thumb, which is worked flat and joined into a tube. Afterwards, the main part starts with an additional chain, and then is worked back and forth around the thumb. Working through the back loop only gives them an interesting texture.

As to the name, the finished pieces reminded me of creamy, wavy layers of a rich chocolate cake.

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




Materials

• a total of about 40 to 45 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors (called C1 and C2) - I used beige and dark (chocolate) brown
• 3mm crochet hook
• 2 removable stitch markers (e.g. safety pins)
• tapestry needle to weave in ends 

Size
The finished mitts - as knitted by me - are about 19 cm long. The width is adjustable - in part 3 of the pattern.


Stitches and Abbreviations

• ch: chain 
• sc: single crochet (American notation)
• sctbl: single crochet through back loop: http://crochet.about.com/od/crochetterms/tp/back-loops-only-or-blo.htm
• sl st: slip stitch: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-crochet-the-slip-stitch.html
• inc: increase by working 2 single crochet stitches into 1 sc below (in case of this pattern, it's 2 sctbl into the sctbl below): http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-increase-with-single-crochet.html
• dec or sctog: decrease by working 2 single crochet stitches together: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-decrease-single-crochet.html 
• join or connect: joining pieces with crochet: in order to join to pieces (or, in case of this pattern, the two sides of one piece) hold the pieces together with wrong sides on the outside and insert the crochet hook into both pieces at the same time, a foto tutorial can be found here (scroll down to “Joining with Crochet” http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/FEATwin08TT.php)
• [y]*x: repeat the sequence y (within the square brackets) x times
• [y] to x sts before marker: repeat the sequence y until there are x stitches before you reach the marker
• In the pattern, there will also be abbreviations for the wave sequences in parts 2 and 3, namely:
• A = inc, sctbl3, dec, dec, sctbl3, inc
• B = dec, sctbl3, inc, inc, sctbl3, dec

General Construction

• Part 1 is the thumb - worked flat and ends with joining the sides to get a little tube. 
• Part 2 starts with a chain of 36 sts and is worked flat (back and forth) around the thumb - the rows consist of the wave sequences (at the beginning and end of a row) and the increases in round sequences (in the middle of the row, around the thumb). The increases around the thumb are calculated to form a part of a flat circle. (The general idea how to crochet a flat circle is explained in this blogpost, i.e. the Kreisel Mitts crochet pattern).
• Part 3 is also worked flat, it widens the mitt to fit your hands and ends by crocheting the edges together.

Instructions

NOTE 1: all increase and decrease stitches in this part are crocheted through the back loop of the underlying stitch only.

NOTE 2: Please note that the sequences in brackets don't always match the number of stitches left (e.g. it might say [dec, sctbl 5], but there are only 4 stitches left) - that's OK. Just continue with the sequence until the condition is met and then stop (in case of the example above, just make one decrease and sctbl the 3 stitches to the end)

NOTE 3: Whenever you encounter a marker, work that stitch and replace the marker up to the current row - unless indicated otherwise.

First mitt

Part 1 (Thumb)
With C1
Row 0: ch 10 and 1 turning-chain
Row 1: sc 10; 1 turning-chain
Row 2: sctbl 10; 1 turning-chain
Row 3: sctbl 8, dec; 1 turning-chain
Row 4: sctbl 9; 1 turning-chain
Row 5: sctbl 7, dec; 1 turning-chain
Row 6: sctbl 8; 1 turning-chain
Row 7: sctbl 6, dec; 1 turning-chain

(Your piece should now be as high as half of your thumb circumference. If it's too small for that you can add an even number of "sctbl all, 1 turning-chain"-rounds.)

Row 8: sctbl 7; 1 turning-chain
Row 9: sctbl 6, inc; 1 turning-chain
Row 10: sctbl 8; 1 turning-chain
Row 11: sctbl 7, inc; 1 turning-chain
Row 12: stbl 9; 1 turning-chain
Row 13: sctbl 8, inc; 1 turning-chain
Row 14: sctbl 10; 1 turning-chain

Now your piece should look like in illustration 1.

Fold the edges together (chain edge and your last row) and connect.

Illustrations

Part 2

Row 0 (C1): chain 36 + 1 turning chain - now your piece looks similar to illustration 2
Row 1 (WS, C1): [A]*3, place marker, sc around the rim of the thumb (from the inside, I picked up 24 sts, if you added a few rows between row 7 and 8 of part 1, you will have a different stitch count), place marker [B]*3
Row 2 (RS, C2): [B]*3, dec, [sctbl2, inc] to 2 before marker, dec, [A]*3
Row 3 (WS, C2): [A]*3, sctbl1, dec [sctbl1, inc, sctbl2] to 3 bef marker, sctbl1, dec, [B]*3
Row 4 (RS, C1): [B]*3, dec, sctbl2, [sctbl2, inc, sctbl2] to 4 bef marker sctbl2, dec , [A]*3
Row 5 (WS, C1): [A]*3, dec, sctbl3, [sctbl3, inc, sctbl2] to 5 bef marker, sctbl3, dec , [B]*3
(Now your piece should look similar to illustration 3.)

Row 6 (RS, C2): [B]*3, dec, sctbl3, inc, [sctbl1, inc, sctbl5] to 6 bef marker, dec, sctbl3, inc, [A]*3
Row 7 (WS, C2): [A]*3, inc, sctbl3, dec, sctbl1, [sctbl1, inc, sctbl6] to 7 bef marker sctbl1, inc, sctbl3, dec, [B]*3
Row 8 (RS, C1): [B]*3, dec, sctbl3, inc, [sctbl4, inc, sctbl4] to 6 bef marker, dec, sctbl3, inc, [A]*3
Row 9 (WS, C1): [A]*3, inc, sctbl3, dec, [inc, sctbl9] to 6 bef marker inc, sctbl3, dec, [B]*3
Row 10 (RS, C2): [B]*4, [sctbl2, inc, sctbl8] to marker sctbl2, [A]*4
Row 11 (WS, C2): [A]*4, [sctbl4, inc, sctbl7] to  marker, [B]*4
Row 12 (RS, C1): [B]*4, [sctbl8, inc, sctbl4]] to marker, [A]*4
Row 13 (WS, C1): [A]*4, [inc, sctbl13] to marker, [B]*4
Row 14 (RS, C2): [B]*4, dec, sctbl3, inc, [sctbl2, inc, sctbl1] to 6 bef marker, dec, sctbl3, inc, [A]*4
Row 15 (WS, C2): [A]*4, inc, sctbl3, dec, [sctbl2, inc, sctbl12] to 6 bef marker inc, sctbl3, dec, [B]*

Part 3
Row 1 (RS, C1): [B]*4, dec, sctbl3, inc, 1 turning chain
Row 2 (WS, C1):  inc, sctbl3, dec, [B]*4, 1 turning chain
Row 3 (RS, C2): [B]*4, dec, sctbl3, inc, 1 turning chain
Row 4 (WS, C2):  inc, sctbl3, dec, [B]*4, 1 turning chain
Row 5 (RS, C1): [B]*4, dec, sctbl3, inc, 1 turning chain
Row 6 (WS, C1):  inc, sctbl3, dec, [B]*4, 1 turning chain
Try or measure whether the piece fits your hands. If it is not wide enough, repeat rows 3 to 6.
Your piece should look similar to illustration 4.

Hold right sides together (aligning at the lower edge) and connect both sides.

Cut yarns and weave in ends.

Second Mitt
If you want one mitt to be the mirror image of the other, you need to exchange the wave sequences, i.e. every time the pattern for mitt 1 says "A", you need to crochet sequence B and vice versa. The increases around the thumb are the same for both mitts.
I also switched the colors, i.e. whenever I used C1 for mitt 1, I used C2 for mitt 2 - and vice versa.

This post was featured on Oombawka Design's Wednesday Link Party #226 . Thank you!

Halsvarmer med chevrons - Chevrons All Round Cowl in Danish

In addition to translating the Hexagon Mitts into Danish, Marianne Holmen from strikkeglad.dk has also written a translation for the cowl that matches these mitts, the Chevrons All Round Cowl. The translation called "Halsvarmer med chevrons" is available here on strikkeglad.dk. Thank you very much for this translation!

The original english version of this pattern can be found here.

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

Hexagon Mitts in Danish - Fingerløse vanter med sekskanter

Marianne Holmen from strikkeglad.dk has written a Danish translation of the Hexagon Mitts pattern. Thank you very much or rather "mange tak"!
Here is a link to the Danish version of this pattern on strikkeglad.dk.
The original (English) version can be found here.

A list of all translated versions of my patterns can be found in this blogpost.


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