Yarn on Thursday: Stitch Edition - Stich Markers!

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: King Charles Brocade (#20), Large Diamonds (#21) and Little Pyramids (#22)


First, here's King Charles Brocade. This is a tricky one; the pattern is a (multiple of 12) +1. Thirteen stitches is a bit too thin for a pattern stitch area, compared to the rest of the blanket (I'm trying to keep "over sixteen"). The alternative is to figure out how it will go over an area of 20 stitches - and let's remember how well that didn't work for the Embossed Diamonds! I'm going to try it anyway.

So, given five stitches' worth of seed stitch before and after 20 stitches of pattern stitch, this is what I knit. I decided to put it in a grid, to make it easier on myself! Wrong-side rows are in italics. Read all rows from left to right. The double-line after the 13th stitch indicates where the pattern repeat begins - and ends.


Well, that looks pretty complicated. Here it is, written normally, to go over 20 stitches:

Row 1: k1, p1, k9, p1, k2, p1, k4
Row 2: p4, k1, p1, k2, p1, k1, p7, k1, p1, k1
Row 3: (k1, p1) twice, k5, (p1, k1) twice, (k1, p1) twice, k2
Row 4: p2, (k1, p1) twice, p3, (k1, p1) twice, p2, (k1, p1) twice, p1
Row 5: k3, (p1, k1) four times, k5, (p1, k1) twice
Row 6: k1, p1, k1, p8, (k1, p1) three times, p4
Row 7: k5, (p1, k1) twice, k9, p1, k1
Row 8: k1, p1, k1, p8, (k1, p1) three times, p4 (or, repeat row 6)
Row 9: k3, (p1, k1) four times, k5, (p1, k1) twice (or, repeat row 5)
Row 10: p2, (k1, p1) twice, p3, (k1, p1) twice, p2, (k1, p1) twice, p1 (or, repeat row 4)
Row 11: (k1, p1) twice, k5, (p1, k1) twice, (k1, p1) twice, k2 (or, repeat row 3)
Row 12: p4, k1, p1, k2, p1, k1, p7, k1, p1, k1 (or, repeat row 2)

If you absolutely, positively have to figure out a pattern over a weird number of stitches, writing the pattern out, stitch by stitch, in a grid, really helps.


Things I noticed about this pattern: If you're going to do less than a full horizontal pattern repeat, stitch markers are key. The double line in the chart above is where the dark red paperclip is - that way, I know I'm starting the repeated stitches. (I read them left to right, for RS and WS - which, I know, is weird, but it works for me. As long as you can read whichever chart you come up with, you're fine.) And here's the finished item, 20 pattern stitches over 24 rows:


With Large Diamonds, I'll be doing the same sort of thing - repeating some of the stitches so I'll have 20 pattern stitches. This time, so it looks vertically balanced, I'll be doing 22 rows - repeating rows 1-8, instead of all 14 pattern rows. Unlike the King Charles Brocade above, this pattern was easy enough to repeat the first five stitches without needing to draft out a big chart. Here is the stitch marker setup:


Things I noticed about this pattern: It is reversible, but the two sides are quite different. I think I actually like the wrong side better than the right side. It was also easy (possibly just compared to the King Charles Brocade), and once I had the hang of what was happening, I didn't actually look at the written pattern.


Right Side/Front


Wrongs Side/Back
On to Little Pyramids. Since this stitch is a "(multiple of 6) + 5), I decided to do it over seventeen stitches, with 6 border seed stitches before and 7 after the pattern stitches. Since it's a 6-row pattern, I did 4 repeats, for a total of 24 rows.


Things I noticed about this pattern: If you hold it at an angle, it looks like dragon scales.

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!