Creative Knitting – Beyond Knit and Purl

While waiting for the postman to deliver my gorgeous yarn to make the evening purse I have planned, I decided to play around with this intriguing stitch.  But first, I had to come up with a cast on method that would allow me to work in the round from the get-go.

First, I tried my usual provisional crocheted chain.  It worked OK, as I made the first  hand bag of my design, but it still wasn’t what I was looking for.  It was very difficult to properly align the main “V” design in the pattern when knitting the first row of stitches picked up from the provisional chain.  I did it, but I was still looking for an easier way to begin.

After playing around for hours, I finally think I have something workable.  Below is a photo of my efforts.

This sample I did using a #9 needle and Sports yarn.  I wanted to see the stitch definition.  You will notice that I gradually tried using two colors.  This affect was really simple to create, as all I had to do was use the purple on my purl rounds.

Now to the cast on-

The photo above is the bottom edge of my sample.  I accomplished this by beginning with a knitted cast on, plus one extra stitch.  When I had 21 stitches cast on the needle, I knitted across the 21 stitches, then pulled out the cord of my circle needle between stitch 20 and 21.  With the right side up, and the cast on edge away from me, I began picking up 19 stitches in the loops at the bottom edge.  Once on, all I had to do was set up for knitting magic loop in the round, with the wrong side facing up.  For this sample I just began my first round on NA, knit 1, knit in st below, then repeated this sequence across.  the second half of the round on NB, was a repeat of the first section on NA.   The effect was that there was no definite seam line and the pattern seemed to flow right out of the bottom of the sample.

If you have never attempted this stitch before, you might want to check out the illustrations in the pdf I have uploaded for you.  I hope my drawings help.  They are an attempt at helping you to recognize that long strand that makes this pattern stitch so great.

Honeycomb Stitch Illustration

Happy Knitting

KT

Here is a photo of the purse I finished for my grand-daughter.