Yarn on Thursday: Week 17

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: #56 Butterfly, #57 Crossed Throw, #58 Diagonal Eyelets, #59 Eyelet Squares and #60 Garland.

Because I forgot it last week, here's a photo of my poor, forgotten Roman Stripe from Week #16:


Also, I forgot to mention that Seafoam Stitch actually puffs OUT horizontally! I've had stitches that pull in horizontally, but this is the first one that actually puffs out!

ONE MORE THING: As I'm getting close to the end of The Master List - well, almost halfway, anyway - I noticed that some of the stitches in the latter half were still duplicates - so there are actually only 131 stitches out there. Which is good, since this is getting to be one seriously huge blanket already!!

Okay, now that last week is finally done, first up we have the Butterfly Stitch. There are six rows of seed stitch between this swatch and the previous one. This stitch is a (multiple of 8)+7, so I'll have 23 pattern stitches, with four seed stitches before and three seed stitches after each RS row (you can figure out how the WS works, I'm sure). It's an eight-row repeat, so I'll do a total of 24 rows in pattern.


What I noticed about this pattern: Pretty little butterflies!


The slipped stitches on the WS give the body, then the antennae of the little guys (the lace holes are the wings). It's stockinette (basically), so it would need blocking if there wasn't a nice seed stitch border on each edge. This could be a cute all-over pattern for a sweater or blanket. (The temptation to put little butterflies all over the yards-and-yards-of-stockinette required to make a sweater for my 6'4" husband is strong, but I'll resist.)

After another six rows of seed stitch (love these even-numbered row patterns!), here's Crossed Throw Stitch. This is a (multiple of 3)+2. Since the last pattern was 23 stitches wide, I'll just keep the same setup: four seed stitches before and three after the pattern on each RS row. Convenient, that! It's a four-row repeat, so six repeats gives us 24 rows. Yes, I'm sliding into the Governess's "we". It happens. I also added an extra knit-across row at the beginning to switch which side was the "right" side.


my right side

my wrong side
What I noticed about this pattern: Change the "p3/yo/p3" part of k3-yo-k3, and you get the back of the swatch. How do I know this? I did it accidentally! While different on both sides, I actually like both sides of this swatch, but I like the "wrong side" better given that there's a lot of purl-facing stitches around it, so that's my right side. They're very different, but very cool, textures. I think it would make a cool border for something (Hm. Have I found the sleeve part of my Starry shrug? It certainly makes its own buttonholes as it goes...!) Note: the "+2" stitches are selvege, really; if this pattern is being worked between pretty much anything, they're not really necessary if you remember to keep all your loops loose! The same stitch can be gotten by doing a "place needle through loop on left needle as if to knit, wrap yarn around right needle 3 times, pull the whole thing back through loop, unwind wraps, keep loose stitch on right needle," which is what I ended up doing. Going down a needle size (or two) makes a pretty impenetrable fabric, if you're going for warmth, too - and going up a few sizes makes it pretty lacy! I'm thinking this might be a good stitch for a slippery yarn, like bamboo. Hmm... I have some bamboo...!

After yet another six rows of seed stitch (have I mentioned that I'm getting REALLY good at seed stitch at this point?), here's Diagonal Eyelets. Now, six rows of seed stitch would normally start me on the RS of the strip, but since I was already "extra rowed", it starts me on the wrong side - which is good, since this pattern starts on the wrong side! It works over any even number of stitches, and since the next two swatches are on the wider side, I'm going to work it over 22 stitches, with four seed stitches before and after the pattern area. It's another four-row repeat, but very simple, so I just did four repeats for sixteen rows to give you the idea of how it looks.


What I noticed about this pattern: It makes a nice, slightly stretchy mesh. There's really not much else to say!

Five rows of seed stitch this time, to get us back to the right side. Eyelet Squares are a (multiple of 10)+2, so the pattern area is 22 stitches (see why I kept the Diagonal Eyelets so wide?) with four seed stitches before and after. This is a twelve-row repeat, so two repeats gives us 24 rows, and to make the whole thing look even, I added three k-across pattern rows at the end.


What I noticed about this pattern:I'm not sure quite what happened here, but this doesn't really look like the original photo. I followed the instructions exactly on the first repeat, and got the holes to line up horizontally, but instead of solid little horizontal-twisty-bars, I have a running zigzag stitch going up. It probably has something to do with the whole I-knit-backwards-from-everyone-else, so on the second repeat, I tried to get things to "twist" somehow, so the horizontal lines would look like the photo. I ended up making it work by pulling my YO from *under* the bar left after the k2tog on the RS. (??) This is definitely one of those times when knitting the way I do can get in the way of what I'm trying to get!


"lines" on bottom

"lines" on top
The bottom zig-zag is nifty, and stay straight; the top, with the straight bars, tries to slant to the right, so it would need blocking.

Finally, Garland Stitch. After another six rows of seed stitch, this pattern is a multiple of seven, so I'll be doing three horizontal repeats for a total of 21 stitches. I'll have five seed stitches before, and four after, each pattern area on the RS. (For whatever reason, I'm keeping the larger number of seed stitches at the front of the RS rows, if applicable. Personal choice, I guess!) This is a fourteen-stitch repeat, so it will be 28 rows tall - which works well, since it ends with a knit row!


What I noticed about this pattern: Well, this one can look pretty strange in progress, and I wasn't quite sure from the photo on the site how it was supposed to look. Turns out, it's a circle floating in a couple of brackets! See?


Um... well, maybe this will show it better:


It's a kinda cool edge stitch. Now that I know how it's supposed to look, getting the stitches going the right way is a bit easier (in the top photo, you can see the second row of circles is a bit neater than the first).

Okay, that's 11 stitches in two weeks - if I can keep this pace up, I'll have a SNAP by this time next week!

A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 131 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!