The Knitting Fiend

I’ll now describe how I decreased “Two Color Star Stitch in Pattern.”¹ For general instructions, visit Part I.

Two Color Star Stitch is illustrated to the left. After practicing a number of rows without decreasing, I began to decrease 1 stitch on each edge every other row. It’s a bit unconventional to do this mostly because many people don’t like to decrease on purl rows. The reason is decreases are often decorative; it’s easier to see you’ve made an ugly decrease if you can see it from the front as you work it.

Despite the disadvantage of decreasing on WS facing rows, before I knit the decreases, I thought what to do would be “more obvious” (to me) if I didn’t try to work decreases while also doing all the yarn over and passing stitches over other stitches on the right hand row. This turned out to be true. I worked the decreases first, and wrote the chart out later. (Once I was sure I understood the pattern, I charted up how to do things if you decide to decrease on right side rows. And strangely enough, although it was easier for me to figure it out by working the decrease on the purl rows, the rule is just as easy to apply if you work the decreases on the right side rows. So, you’ll probably want to work them on the right side!)

Here’s how I decreased! At a certain row, when my swatch was “long enough”, I decided to decrease. which happened to be a “row 3″ type row, I started decreasing. This is wrong side row, so the chart is worked from left to right. I purled the selvedge stitch. Then, I decreased a stitches by purling the next two stitches together ( p2tog ). The two stitches involved in this operation are shown in red, and on the left side of the chart. The box above the stitch to the left is blank because it’s gone!

I purled across the row; when there were 3 stitches left, I “p2tog tbl” ², that is “purl 2 together through back loops. Then I purled the final stitch.

Ok. That was easy enough. Now for the hard part. Turn the row and work a type 4 row, but with a stitch missing at the beginning and end. I charted this out. Read the row after the first decrease from right to left. Knit the selvedge stitch. Now, there’s a blank box: that’s because the stitch is gone. If you look down the chart, you can see it would have been a “\\*”. Just work the next two knit stitches; you obviously can’t pass the stitch you didn’t knit over the two stitches you just knit, so don’t.

Now, notice the symbol in column 5?

This is the “tricky” part! If you look down four rows, there used to be a “\\0″ in that box. Notice, I replaced it with a “\\*”. When I was discussing the main stitch pattern, I mentioned this rule: When working a “type 4″ row, don’t work a yarn over until after you worked the first “\\” type operation.” (If you do yarn over, that increases a stitch on this edge. So, it cancels out the decrease I marked in red!)

Ok, that wasn’t much of a trick. But, it’s the part that’s “not obvious”.

Now, work repeats across the row, following the text directions of the chart. When you reach stitch in column 11, work a “|0″. That is, yarn over, but don’t work any more “pass first stitch knit over second and third stitches”. If you do work that fiddle “pass over two stitches” after the final yo of this row, you’ll lose another stitch on the left edge and the left edge will decrease more than planned. Then, knit to the end of the row. If you will notice you finish with 1 less knit stitch than indicated in the text instructions.

Now, change colors. Work the decreases as shown as you purl back. From now on, just follow the chart.

When you are knitting this, you won’t want to be charting things out on graph paper. Instead, you want to come up with simple rules that let you use the eyeball method. Here’s what you do:

Turn to begin a RS facing row. First, knit the selvedge stitch. Next, work the stitches in between selvedge stitches in pattern. To do this, you need to “read your knitting” and apply “rules” for “in between stitches.

To “read your knitting”, remember that the second knit stitch in the “knit 3 stitches, pass first stitch over second two” (i.e. the “\\”) is worked in the stitch directly above the “yo” of the previous odd number row. Find that stitch. Now, knit until there is that stitch, and the one before it remain on your left needle. (You will knit between 0 and 2 stitches.)

1. If you are knitting with color B, (as for a “row 4″), work “knit 3 stitches, pass first stitch over second two” ( the “\\*”). Verify that the second stitch of the “knit 3″ lies over the “yo” two rows below. When you reach the end of the row, remember to work a “|0″ ( and not a “\\0″) and finish with required knit stitches.
2. If you are knitting with color A, (as for a “row 2″), work “yo, knit 3 stitches, pass first stitch over second two” ( the “\\0″). Verify that the second stitch of the “knit 3″ lies over the “yo” two rows below. Work the pattern repeat all the way across. Finishing by working knit stitches.

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Now, I do want to show you a chart for decreasing if you start decreasing on right side rows. Here it is. I began decreasing on a “row 4″ type row.

Examine the chart. Notice, the first three stitches on all right hand side rows become “k1, ssk”; the final three become “k2tog, k1″. These are the two selvedge stitches and the left and right slanting decreases. I’ve underlined these to emphasize that these three surround the “in between” stitches. Now that you know which are the “in between stitches”, read the rules above. To work them, apply the exact same rules I described when you decrease on the purl rows.

I hope this either helps you knit your stitch or it helps you learn how to chart! Tomorrow, I’m going to explain how to “p2 tog”, since that’s a useful thing to know how to do. Meanwhile, keep posting questions places I see them, and I’ll keep posting really long winded answers.

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1. p. 92 “Second of Knitting Patterns”, Walker.
2 Purl 2 together through back loops. I plan to show how to do this next. It causes a left slanting decrease on the right side, and looks like an ssk. I used this to mirror the p2tog on the other side. If you don’t know how to do this, just purl 2 tog.