Category Archives: Patterns

Girl with a pink beanie

by

tosh dk geranium pink beanie knitting pattern

You probably need only look at these photos to see why I don’t really wear hats — it’s not the best look for me. But I had this beautiful skein of Tosh DK in a color called Geranium, and for some reason I wanted it to be a hat. For me.

I always thought if I were to ever knit a hat for myself it would be something like Eyen or Hineri, or at least the Dimple. But having settled on pink — and given the ease with which that could get too cute for me — I decided to keep it classic. Just ribbing and stockinette, sized for options: the full-on hipster beanie; slightly rolled for a more subtle slouch; or tidily turned up and snugged down. As it turns out, it looks best on my favorite neighbor:

If anyone wants the specifics, here’s a pattern for you —

CONVERTIBLE BEANIE

Materials: 170 yds of Tosh DK in Geranium; US8 needles (16-inch circular plus DPNs); 6 stitch markers, one of which is different from the others; tapestry needle

Gauge: 21 stitches = 4 inches in stockinette

Measurements: Brim circumfererence is approximately 14 inches unstretched, before blocking (fits my 23-inch noggin a bit loosely, as I like it); total height is 11 inches

Directions:

On 16-inch circular needle, cast on 96 stitches

Place the unique stitch marker and join for working in the round

Knit K2/P2 ribbing until brim measures 4 inches

Switch to stockinette: Knit every stitch, every round, until piece measures a total of 8 inches

Decrease setup round: *Knit 14, k2tog, place marker; repeat from * until end of round (your original stitch marker continues to mark the beginning of the round)

Next round: Knit all stitches

Decrease round: *Knit until last two stitches before marker, k2tog, slip marker; *repeat until end of round

Continue alternating one knit round and one decrease round (switching to DPNs as necessary*) until you’ve completed a knit round with 12 stitches on each needle, for a total of 36 stitches

Decrease every subsequent round until you have 2 stitches per needle; cut the tail and, using the tapestry needle, thread it through the last six stitches; pull tight and weave in ends!

*When switching to the DPNs, note that you’ve got six stitch markers — six sets of stitches — and divide them evenly onto 3 needles. You should have one stitch marker in the middle of each needle, so you’ll knit the last two stitches before the marker, then the last two stitches on the needle. Don’t worry if you lose track of that BOR marker; each time you’ve got an equal number of stitches on all three needles, you’ve completed a round.

.

Special thanks to my friends Leigh and Sarah for the photos, and to the world’s most agreeable pug.

.

UPDATE 01.13.13 — This hat now belongs to fashion designer Gretchen Jones, who looks a million times better in it than I did.

Morse the second: F–k cancer

by

morse code cowl 2 cancer

I hope it’s in her hands by now, and I’m sure she doesn’t read this blog anyway, so here’s the story on that project I was being coy about.

Today is the final doctor visit of our friend Mary Elizabeth Williams’ cancer drug trial, and Mignon suggested a variation on the Morse Code Cowl might be in order: with the message “fuck cancer.” Mignon, who lives down south, designed a card with the Morse characters on the front and the URL of the Wikipedia page on the inside, so Mary Beth can make sense of it all — assuming the two packages show up reasonably close together! If you don’t already read MB at Salon and elsewhere, or haven’t seen her brilliant essays about her battle with cancer, read this now. She’s truly one of my heroes — a model of grace and humor in the worst of circumstances.

Since MB is rather petite, and I don’t know if she loves to have a giant pile of yarn around her neck like I do, I had intended to scale it down a bit for her. But it still came out about 30 or 32 inches around and I think I made it 14 inches deep. I believe she’ll also be able to pull it down around her shoulders like a capelet if she likes. Anyway, I hope she loves it, or at least laughs!

(Knitting specifics for anyone interested: The yarn is Malabrigo Twist, in Tuareg, held double throughout — approx 440 yds total — knit nice and snug on a US11 x 24″ circular. I cast on 88 stitches, knit the “cancer” row at 4 inches and the “fuck” row at 6. )

Arm leggings

by

navy armwarmers free knitting pattern

I finished these last week, by the way. (I haven’t been finishing enough lately.) Bob calls them my arm leggings. He sort of has a point — at this weight and length, with that inch of ribbing on the elbow end, they do look a tiny bit like I cut off a pair of socks. But I’m in love with them and have to resist the urge to wear them around the clock.

To recap, these are Cascade Pure Alpaca in navy. Cast on 42 stitches; 1×1 rib for two rounds; stockinette until 15 inches; 1×1 rib for 1 more inch; Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off. (Very important if, like me, you want them long enough to pull all the way up to your elbows.)

Pleasant to make. Even more pleasant to wear!

(See also previous post and on Ravelry.)

Super Simple Mitts

by
super simple fingerless gloves pattern


If you like this, please LEAVE A TIP!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The look of these quick and simple fingerless gloves is inspired in part by Tante Ehm’s wonderful Camp Out Fingerless Mitts, with that wide band of garter stitch around the knuckles. But for this I’ve boiled it down to the essence: a glove you can easily whip out in a bunch of colors or that any beginner can make. If you can cast on, knit, purl, and bind off, you’re golden. There are no increases or decreases; no picking up stitches. And for anyone who’s been wanting to try double-point needles, I think a simple mitt like this is a great place to start.

Old pros will think this is the equivalent of posting a recipe for PB&J, and will only care to know that I cast on 32 stitches on US6 DPNs. The ribbing is 2×2; about an inch at the cuff and 2 around the knuckles. The thumbhole is a 1.5-inch stretch that was knit as if flat, starting at the 4.5-inch mark, before the piece is rejoined in the round. Total length is 8″. (For the record: I lightly toast my bread, let it cool slightly so as not to overly melt the peanut butter, and then barely wave jam in the bread’s general direction, for a goopless sandwich. How about you?)

For my fellow beginners out there, I’m spelling it out in full detail below.

– – – – – – –

P A T T E R N   |   queue it on Ravelry

These would likely be classed as M/L if sold retail. For a bigger or smaller hand, add or subtract to the cast-on count in any multiple of 4 stitches (needed for the 2×2 ribbing). So 28 or 36 would work equally well. If you want your gloves to be shorter or longer, or the ribbed sections to be different proportions, knock yourself out! You could even rib the entire glove. Just be sure you have enough yarn for whatever alterations you make. [Oct 2012: See also my fully ribbed Marl Mitts version.]

Materials:

  • Approx 100 yards aran-weight wool (pictured is Berroco Blackstone Tweed in Wintry Mix)
  • 4 double-point needles, size US6
  • tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Dimensions:

Approx 7 inches around by 8 inches tall

Abbreviations:

CO = cast on
DPN = double-point needle
K = knit
p = purl
BO = bind off

Directions:

CO 32 stitches on one US6 DPN (see note above for alterations)

Divide stitches onto 3 DPNs as follows: Slide stitches to far end of needle. Slip the first 12 stitches onto another DPN (needle 1), then the next 8 stitches onto another (needle 2), leaving 12 on the original needle (needle 3). Join for working in the round, making sure stitches are not twisted around the needles*
Round 1: Holding your working yarn and tail together for the first 4 stitches and using a 4th DPN to knit, *K2, P2. Repeat from * until the end of the round. (Drop your tail after those first 4 stitches but do not cut it off. You can use it to keep track of which needle is needle 1. Whenever you’re back to the needle with the tail hanging below it, you’ve completed one full round.)
Repeat round 1, forming 2×2 ribbing, until piece measures 1 inch
Switch to stockinette: Knit all stitches, all rounds, until piece measures 4.5 inches, being sure to end with needle 3
Next row: Hold needle 3 in your left hand as if it were a straight needle to begin knitting thumb section back and forth. Slip the first stitch onto your free needle, then purl the rest of the row, ending with needle 1
Next row: Turn the work so that needle 1 is in your left hand, with the right side of the glove facing you. Slip the first stitch onto your free needle, then knit the rest of the row, ending with needle 3
Continue working back and forth in this fashion, slipping the first stitch on every row, until the opening measures 1.5 inches, ending with a purl row.
Rejoin for working in the round; knit two rounds
Resume ribbing, k2/p2, until piece measures 8 inches
BO loosely in rib pattern
Weave in ends

.

*If you haven’t done this before, put your yarn and needles down for a minute and form a triangle in front of you with your hands — fingers and thumbs touching. Think of the side of the triangle formed by your two thumbs as needle 2. The fingers of your left hand are needle 1; the fingers of your right hand are needle 3. Now arrange your cast-on stitches into a triangle the same way, a triangle pointing away from you, with all of the stitches running along the inside of the triangle. Your working yarn and tail should be hanging from the tip of needle 3, the top right of the triangle.

super simple fingerless mitts

Knitting in code

by

morse code cowl

So there I was on my couch last week, knitting yet another cowl, trying to arrive at the perfect combination of yarn, stitch pattern and dimensions to create a warm and stylish object I would want to have piled around my neck always, when I began chiding myself for how particularly minimalist this one was. A nice tasteful charcoal. Stockinette with ribbed edges. “Can’t you put a little texture in it or something?” Well maybe I could scatter a few purl rows in there — 3 or 4 spaced-out purl rows? “Daring! But how would that affect the way it lays?” I don’t know. What if they weren’t all solid purl rows but maybe every other stitch, something like that? Or random purl stitches here and there? “What if it wasn’t random, but there was actually some irrelevant organizing principle at play?”

And somehow the next thing my brain came up with was … Morse Code. What can I say? (And, hey!, I’m sure I’m far from the first dork genius to ever make this connection.)

It so happens that I have always liked inscriptions and secret messages and such, so the idea stuck. The next day I was learning the code and charting out a message — using a single purl stitch for a dot and 3 in a row for a dash. (“Dots” and “dashes” really being short and long signals.) And every space is a knit stitch: 1 between the dots/dashes of a single letter; 3 between letters; 7 between words. Then I figured if I’m doing something as dorky as knitting Morse Code, I might as well go all the way and make it punny, right? So this cowl says I wool always love you.

As intended, it gives just a very little bit of visual interest. I centered my three “text” rows on each other but then positioned them toward one end of the object for a little asymmetry. If I knew someone who could actually read Morse Code, could they read the cowl? Maybe. But it’s sort of beside the point. Like an inscription, the wearer is the only one who needs to know.

I’m including the pattern, such as it is, but you could obviously make up anything you want for the “inscription.” Just remember that Morse is a lot of characters, what with all the spaces between letters and words — I mean, “love you” is 83 stitches — so you have to keep it short and break the words up such that they fit within your stitch count. And then knit them right to left, bottom to top.

– – – – – – –

P A T T E R N

Materials:

  • US11 x 24″ circular needle
  • approx 240 yds solid-colored* chunky/bulky yarn
  • stitch marker

Dimensions:

Approximately 32″ circumference and 17″ high, before blocking

Directions:

CO 96 stitches, place marker, and join for working in the round
Work k2/p2 ribbing for 1-1/2″ or 5 rows
Switch to stockinette stitch (knit all rows) until piece measures 4″
Next row: k6, p3, k1, p1, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p3, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p1, k1, p3, k7, p1, k3, p3, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p3, k3, p1, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1, k7
Resume stockinette until piece measures 6″
Next row: k17, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p1, k1, p3, k3, p3, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p1, k3, p1, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p1, k18
Resume stockinette until piece measures 8″
Next row: k18, p1, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p3, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p3, k3, p3, k1, p3, k1, p1, k7, p1, k1, p1, k19
Resume stockinette until piece measures 15-1/2″
Switch to k2/p2 ribbing for 1-1/2″ or 5 rows
BO and weave in ends

– – –

*The idea here is that this is subtle texture. Doing the Morse stitches in a contrasting color would be too “on the nose” for me personally, whereas a variegated yarn would muddle the stitch pattern — the Morse bits would wind up just looking like mistakes in your work. Hence my recommendation to do this with a single solid color.

p.s. 01.17: Added to Ravelry

morse code cowl annotated

“Tootsie Toasters” in progress

by

tootsie toasters knitted slipper socks in progress

As you may have seen, a few of us are attempting to knit the Tootsie Toasters — aka slipper socks — loosely detailed in that previously-posted, vintage, typewritten pattern from my mother’s archives. I took a first pass at it Saturday night, going with the large dimensions, and made a short-sighted decision about how to adjust for the incorrect stitch count. I’d added to the purl count instead of increasing the sl.1/k1 repeat, but Jo set me straight yesterday. I also determined, in the process, that the large would be too big for my size 10s anyway, so I started over yesterday afternoon with a CO of 29 stitches but then knit the pattern rows until I had just shy of 8 inches. Pictured above is how far I got: ready to cinch that last row of stitches together for the toe and then seam it up. However, I’m not at all happy with how the edges of the toe portion look, where I was knitting or purling two together at the beginning of each row. (What’s the more elegant way to do this?) And in the meantime, Meg finished multiple versions and came up with the brilliant notion to do the toe cap in the round. (I’ll post details soon.) So I think I’ll rip back to the start of the ribbing and try that. Meg also did a 3-needle bind-off for the heel, which is a technique I’ve been looking for an excuse to learn.

If you’re giving this a go, let’s hear about it in the comments.

(Update Feb ’12: Meg has posted her revisions of this pattern as a free PDF on Ravelry. To see all the Tootsie Toaster-related posts, click here.)

My mother, the knitter

by

tootsie toasters knitting pattern

So it turns out my endlessly crafty mother was a knitter. For a period of my childhood she was knitting afghans, in particular — multi-colored scalloped rows of yarn. I have no idea how I managed to forget this.

The funny part is how it came up. I picked them up at the airport Christmas morning and brought them back to our loft, where my sister and her family were hanging out. Out of the blue, as we’re getting ready to tackle our little pile of presents, Mom says brightly to me, “I thought about finishing up that latch-hook Santa and wrapping it up for you for Christmas!” She did not yet know that I’ve added knitting to my repertoire, didn’t know this blog existed, and we have never spoken of that half-hooked Santa in all the intervening years. (It’s hilarious that she still has it. They have moved since then!) So I pulled out my iPhone and called up the post where I’d been talking about it, and we laughed, and I finally confessed I’m knitting and gave her the cowl I’d secretly made her.

Their first morning back home, my dad sent me an email with the scanned pattern above: Tootsie Toasters! Complete with my mom’s marginalia. I can’t make any sense of it. (Can you? Decipher for me in the comments if so!) But I’m dying to know what “AUNT LYDIA’S” HEAVY RUG YARN looked like.

(Update: Some of us are taking a swing at this mysterious pattern. See the comments for more.)

(Update Feb ’12: Meg has posted her revisions of this pattern as a free PDF on Ravelry. To see all the Tootsie Toaster-related posts, click here.)

– – –

Here’s Mom in her Christmas cowl. It’s Cirilia Rose‘s cozy Columbia Cowl done in Malabrigo Chunky, in the fabulous and impossible to photograph color called Tuareg; details on Ravelry.

Love you, Mom!