A tweep I
follow posted about a stitch I've never heard of before now. I've been
knitting and doing a lot of the other fiber arts since I was a little kid, but
this stitch was a new one on me. It's called the Linen Stitch or otherwise known
as the Fabric Stitch. It's a very seemingly and deceptively easy stitch to do, on paper.
It's a 2 row
repeat. I scoured the web looking everywhere for this stitch. I tried 4
different sets of instructions before I finally got it right. The one that
finally worked can be found here: http://www.ashidome.com/blogger/archive_craftystitch.asp?c=15.
This one even made sense especially after I darned near went nuts following a
bunch of different videos for it.
Anyway, here it is,
plain and simple.
Linen stitch makes a very dense fabric.
Multiple of
2 stitches plus 3 (basically any odd number works for this
pattern)
Row 1: *K1, Slip 1 with yarn to front; repeat from * to
last stitch, K1 Row 2: P2, *Slip 1 with yarn to back, P1; repeat from
* to last 2 stitches, P2
Repeat these two rows for pattern.
I think the
biggest difficulty is realizing that wyif (yarn in front) and wyib (yarn in
back) needs to be done after each knit or purl stitch completed.
Notice that the front of
the work resembles woven cloth.
Row 1: The first
picture is my progress on a new dishrag. The second pictures shows me ready to knit 1.
Picture 3 is: bring yarn
to front of work (towards your body); Picture 4 is: slip next stitch as if to
purl.
Picture 5 is:
bring yarn back to where it
belongs (away from your body) so you can knit the next stitch.
Row 2: When you
get to the second row of this stitch pattern, you'll be doing exactly the
opposite when you're slipping the stitches.
Notice that the back of
the work resembles seed stitch.
The first
picture here, shows me ready to pearl the next stitch. The second picture is
bringing the yarn to the back of
the work (away from the body).
Picture 3 is slipping the
next stitch purlwise (wyib - away from the body). Picture 4 is bring the yarn
back to the front (towards the body) to purl the next
stitch.
Ready to purl the next stitch.
*note: I knit with both
left handed and right handed, English (throwing), and Continental
(picking).
Ready to purl the next stitch.