Yarn on Thursday: Stitch Edition - Stripe #3 Begins!

First, a giggle: Marie-Jolie commented that knitting a blanket requires the patience of Job, as far as she was concerned. I have to agree - you've all seen how much progress I've made on the Dragon Illusion Blanket since I started it the first time in 2004 (and again in 2009). That's why this isn't really a blanket - it's a STEALTH BLANKET. Stealth by way of a couple of swatches a week that just *happen* to be strung together into strips that just *happen* to be stuck together into blanket form. See, a couple of swatches? That's not so much knitting. Putting together a couple of strips - that's not so bad. If I actually think about it as a blanket, though, then... clearly, I'm nuts. So, to preserve my self-delusion of sanity, it's just swatches, not a whole entire blanket! Anyway....On to Strip #3!!

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: (#34) Plain Diamonds, (#35) Purled Ladder, (#36)Rice Stitch, and, once again, Seed Stitch (which we don't really need to swatch, since it's the border of every single other swatch!!).

First up, Plain Diamonds. This pattern is a multiple of nine stitches, so I did it twice. That means six seed-stitch border stitches front and back, and eighteen pattern stitches. I "only" did three repeats of the pattern, since it shows up quite nicely over 24 rows - and then realized that was all I needed. For some reason, I thought I was "supposed" to do four repeats - even though it's an eight-row pattern.

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Things I noticed about this stitch: Oh-my-gosh, this needs blocking. If you pull it vertically, it will curl on itself vertically. If you pull it horizontally, it will curl on itself horizontally. Of all the diamond patterns, it's the most diamond-y looking. And reversible, of course. But gosh, BLOCK IT.

Next, Purled Ladder. This is a (multiple of 4)+2 pattern. I decided to go up to 22 stitches, so there are only four seed stitches before and after the pattern. Since I was still convinced that I had to do four repeats (despite it being an eight-row pattern, so I only needed 3 repeats to make my 24 rows), I did. Clearly, math while I'm sick isn't my strong suit.


Things I noticed about this stitch: This one looks a lot like Box Stitch/Double Moss Stitch (from Week 2), but it is a bit different - the two rows of knitting in between each "box" define it a bit better. (But really, they look a lot alike.)

Next, Rice Stitch. Now, there's a Rice Stitch that I'm used to doing in cross-stitch/canvaswork - it looks like this:


From the ever-helpful About.com
The knitted Rice Stitch is quite different. But you'd expect that, right? Anyway, this was a (multiple of 2)+1, so I did 21 stitches for the pattern, with four seed stitches to start the RS row, and five seed stitches at the end. Since the pattern is a whopping two rows, I deemed six repeats (12 rows) to be quite enough.


RS


WSThings I noticed about this stitch: This one looks a LOT like Broken Rib (also from Week 2). The only difference appears that the knit stitches on the RS are twisted here, and not on the Broken Rib. So, get pretty much the same effect (front AND back!) using whichever of these two stitches you can knit faster. And you can see that, while it is a "reversible" stitch, the two sides are not the same.

... and I already mentioned that we don't need to do Seed Stitch, since at this point I know I can do it in my sleep. LITERALLY.

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!