Japanese Pattern Books

... seen in Paris - quite appropriate ;-)

Tarn Scrunchy

If there's anything I should have lying around, it's scrunchies. Unfortunately, I seem to "distribute" them all over the place, so that I usually don't find any of them. That's why I buy more and more of them - only to discover later that there were some in the pocket of a winter coat or in a bag that I hadn't used for ages.
By chance I found on ravelry a pattern for one ... before, it had never occured to me that this could be a knitting or crochet project.

So, this weekend I went to the supermarket and bought cheap hair rubber bands.

First I tried with thin cotton yarn - and it looked just fine. Then I thought that this might be something to use my tarn for. (How to make tarn: here.)

It took me several times, to get it right. Since tarn is quite thick, it was necessary to use it in a way that the scrunchy wouldn't get to heavy. For example, loops of chain stitches were just to thick and unelastic.

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.


Here's how I did it ...

Material:

• less then 1 t-shirt's worth of tarn
• one elastic hair band
• 5mm crochet hook

Instructions:

1. to start do a slip stitch and fix yarn to hair band with another slip stitch
2. wrap yarn twice around your index finger, insert hook into these loops, yarn over and pull through, but leave the loops on your finger (you have now 2 loops on your hook)
3. again wrap yarn twice around your index finger insert hook into these loops, yarn over and pull through, but leave the loops on your finger (you have now 3 loops on your hook)
4. yarn over and pull yarn through all three loops on your hook
5. slip stitch around the elastic hair band and remove the loops from your index finger
6. repeat steps 2 to 5 round
7. join with slip stitch and weave in ends

Yoga Socks, Yoga Socks and Yoga Socks

My current favorite kind of project: yoga socks - this is a really simple pattern, or rather a quick "how to".




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



Materials

• about 25-30 grams of fingering weight yarn
• two 4mm needles (for cast on)
• 3mm dpns
• tapestry needle (to bind off and to weave in ends)

Special Techniques

• The "Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn bind off" technique that I used is described in this knitty-article.

Instructions

• CO60 with 4mm needles and join in round
• change to 3mm needles (using bigger needles for CO will make the cast-on stretchier)
• knit 34 rounds of "p1 k3 p1"-ribbing (this is basically "p2 k3"-ribbing, but by starting with p1 k3, the opening will start end end in the middle of a purl channel)
• in 35th round: BO30 and finish round in ribbing-pattern
• in 36th round: CO30 (knitted cast-on) and finish round in ribbing pattern
• knit 33 more rows of "p1 k3 p1"-ribbing
• BO using sewn bind off technique - also very stretchy
  (list of BO techniques: http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/FEATsum06TT.html)

 

Variations - also in fingering weight sock yarn

• CO64 with 3.5mm needles and then change to 2.5mm needles and knit "p2 k2"-ribbing
  
  and/or
  
  
• Knit 36 rounds for the ankle part - and only 25 rounds for the foot part

This pattern is part of the "Knitting in the Round: 10 Knit Sock Patterns and Knitted Slipper Patterns Free eBook" on allfreeknitting.com.

Waves

Ever since I saw some "swing knitting" projects on ravelry, I wanted to make something like that myself. I managed to start something similar yesterday. It's basically constructed of short rows ...
Though I am pleased with the result, it doesn't look quite as "organical" as I would have liked it. Furthermore, I made a few mistakes so that the pattern is not really regular. But for a prototype (and something I have figured out without a written pattern), it's OK.

Links to swing knitting or related techniques:

• http://www.swing-knitting.com/
• http://www.strickrausch.de/; Ms Kluge from Strickrausch has also published a sequence of videos explaining her technique - however, these videos are in German: here's the link to her video channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/StrickRausch
• Swing knitting on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/knitting-the-swing---swing-knitting

Step-by-Step Photo Tutorial - Flowers for the Falling Blossoms Scarf

At the beginning of a row use the crochet hook to take the first stitch from your knitting needle and start to crochet the flowers:

ch 7, sl st in 4th chain to form a small loop (the first flower will be crocheted around this loop)

to form the first petal ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3 and sl st in loop,

ch 3, dc 2 in loop (this starts the second petal of the first flower)
ch 7, sl st in 4th chain to form a small loop (the second flower will be crocheted around this loop)

ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (first petal)
ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (second petal)
ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (third petal)
ch 3, dc 2 in loop, sl st in the top of the last dc of the second petal of the first flower

ch 3, sl st in loop of first flower (the second petal of the first flower is now finished)
ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (third petal)
ch 3, dc 2 in loop, sl st in the first chain

put stitch back on knitting needle and continue

Falling Blossoms Scarf

This scarf is the ideal spring project for "bi-craftuals" :)
You can combine your knitting and crocheting skills into one special garment.

The scarf is knitted from side to side with crochet flowers added at the beginning of every 12th row by taking the last stitch off the needle and using it as a chain stitch to crochet from. After two flowers have been crocheted the stitch is slipped back on the knitting needle and knitting is continued in a normal way.

A photo tutorial on how to crochet the flowers can be found in this blog post.






Falling Blossoms Scarf by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Materials:

• 3.5 mm knitting needles (i.e. knitting needles that were slightly bigger than the yarn called for)
• 2.5 mm crochet hook
• ca. 100 grams fingering weight yarn (I used Zwerger Opal Surprise, but any other fingering weight with a nice color change will do)

How to crochet the flowers:
At the beginning of a row use the crochet hook to take the first stitch from your knitting needle and start to crochet the flowers - the numbers in square brackets are references to the chart.

• ch 7, sl st in 4th chain to form a small loop (the first flower will be crocheted around this loop) [1]
• to form the first petal ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3 and sl st in loop, 
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop (this starts the second petal of the first flower)
• ch 7, sl st in 4th chain to form a small loop (the second flower will be crocheted around this loop) [2]
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (first petal)
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (second petal) 
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (third petal) 
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop, sl st in the top of the last dc of the second petal of the first flower [3]
• ch 3, sl st in loop of first flower (the second petal of the first flower is now finished)
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop, ch 3, sl st in loop (third petal)  
• ch 3, dc 2 in loop, sl st in the first chain [4]
• put stitch back on knitting needle and continue pattern

I have written a short tutorial (with photos) on how to crochet the flowers - here's the link.

Instructions:
CO2
knit 2 rows

Section 1 - Set-up rows
Row 1: kfb, k to end
Row 2 - 6: k
repeat these rows a total of 8 times (you have 10 sts on your needles)

Section 2 - Increase rows
Row 1: kfb, k to end
Row 2: k
Row 3: make flower and then k to end
Row 4-6: k
Row 7: kfb, k to end
Row 8-12: k
Repeat these rows a total of 19 times and once more knit rows 1-10 (you have 50 sts on your needles)

Section 3 - Decrease rows
Row 1: k
Row 2: k until the last two stitches k2tog
Row 3-4: k
Row 5: make flower and then k to end
Row 6-7: k
Row 8: k until the last two stitches k2tog
Row 9-12: k
Repeat these rows a total of 20 time

Section 4 - Finishing rows
Row 1: k
Row 2: k until the last two stitches k2tog
Row 3-6: k
Repeat these rows 7 times (there are only 3 sts left on your needles), then
knit one row,
knit and k2tog,
knit one row
and bind off the last two stitches.

Weave in ends and block - making sure to block the flowers separately.

This post was featured on The Philosopher's Wife: Yarn Fanatic Party #31, Pinbellish Link Party No. 40 at Purfylle.com. and at Moogly's Hookin' up on Hump Day Link Party No. 120. Thank you!

Mini-Cable Fingerless Gloves

I'm still not sure how this stitch is called – I found a YouTube video that called it „mock cables“, however my (German) stitch dictionary calls it „Minizöpfe“ (i.e. mini-cables) which seens more suitable, since it's not only a cable „look“, but the stitches are actually crossed. But whatever the stitch is called, I like it.

The finished gloves will be about 20cm long and 17cm in circumference.






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

Materials
Fingering weight yarn
3.5 mm dpns
Stitch holder or waste yarn
Tapestry needle

The Mini-Cable Stitch

• mini-cable: insert your right needle in the second stitch on the left needle and knit it, but don't slip it. Then knit the first stitch on the left needle and let both stitches slip from the needle.

Other Stitches

• make 1 purl stitch: insert needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl through the front
• make 1 right or make a knit stitch leaning to the right: insert needle from the back in the bar between two stitches and knit the stitch through the front
• make 1 left or make a knit stitch leaning to the left: insert needle from the front in the bar between two stitches and knit the stitch through the back of the loop

Instructions
CO48 and join in round
Row 1: *p1 k2 p1* repeat
Row 2: *p1 mini-cable p1* repeat
Repeat those two rows a total of 18 times and start thumb gusset around one of the mini-cables accordinng to chart.

After the 16th row of the thumb gusset put 14 stitches on stitch holder and CO 4 above the thumb gusset, these four stitches will be knitted „p1 k2 p1“ in the next row to continue the mini-cable pattern.
Continue pattern for another 13 rows and bind off in pattern.

Thumb
Place stitches from stitch holder on two dpns. Pick up additional 8 stitches from above the thumb gusset. Continue according to chart.

Bind off in 10th row.

Weave in ends.

Make two.