Yarn on Thursday: Stitch Edition - the short version!

The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!

This week's stitches: Garter Stitch (#17)

Yes, I know, just one pattern, but it was REALLY busy this week - to the point of "had to stay in a hotel one night in case it snowed so bad the busses got shut down the next morning." So, not a lot of knitting time for the it-stays-at-home-because-I-am-NOT-carrying-around-a-Monster-Ball-of-Yarn project!

I did these patterns slightly out of numerical order - #16, Garter Rib, was supposed to be next. Since I was just a wee bit short of my desired six foot length for Strip #1, I did a stitch that I know doesn't eat up the vertical inches - Garter Stitch. This is officially The Easiest Stitch In The World, since it's knit across, turn over, knit across. I made it slightly more complicated by adding 5 seed stitches before and after the 20 pattern stitches - but only barely.


front
Things I noticed about this pattern: It doesn't get any more reversible than this - except, perhaps, with seed stitch. It does pull in a lot - the mere 24 rows didn't give me quite enough inches to make it to six feet, so there are 31 rows of garter stitch. There were going to be 30, but I liked the look of the k-across at the bottom, and wanted the same effect up top. The seed stitch begins on the wrong side, and goes for six rows. I bound off knitwise, not following the pattern, on the wrong side. In the photo above, you can see that the bind-off looks, more or less, like a continuation of the seed stitch. On the back, below, it's pretty obvious, so the purl side of the bind off is on the right side of the blanket.


back
I measured my completed strip. Remember, since it's all acrylic, I'm not blocking! Using my handy-dandy floor ruler (12" square blocks!), you can see that yep, it's close enough to six feet that I'll be happy with it. I'll be tweaking future strips to be the same length as this first one, for assembly purposes.Oh, and I at least started Strip #2!!


Finally, a different color!!

A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!