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I ran onto a wonderful tucking technique from 'ridelikethewind', a gal on ravelry.com who shared the technique in really nice hat and mittens made with the same stitch pattern. To simplify things and to learn the mechanics, I made a dishcloth with some cotton yarn. It's quite a great stitch pattern with vertical stripes on one side and a vertical tuck pattern on the other...and no ribber needed. It makes wonderful dishcloths and I can see lots of applications for it. 'Ridelikethewind' used a punchcard machine to make her hat and mittens and I used my electronic Brother 965i. My dishcloths were made on my KX350 midgauge manual machine so this can be done on any machine. I urge you to pop in on Ravelry and check out 'Ridelikethewind's projects.
For vertical stripes to be properly knit, patterning must start with row #2 of a punch card or the electronic equivalent. See below for the stitch pattern and my notes on how to work it.
Machine:
Brother KX350 Midgauge (7mm)
Yarn: Maysville 8/4
Cotton rug warp
Tension: 4
to 5 (I prefer T5)
Gauge: 4.5
sts, 17 rows = 1” in tuck
Size: 9”
wide x 10”long
1) CO 46 (44)
sts with waste yarn and ravel cord.
2) T5,
E-wrap and K1R to left.
3) RC000,
beginning with needle 1, pull EON to HP
across.
4) Engage
the hold levers on the carriage.
5) K1R to
right.
6) * Change yarn color.
7) With a
flat edge or your fingers, push the needles in
hold position back to upper working position. Then
pull the needles in lower working position out to hold
position.
8)
K2R. **
9) Repeat
from * to ** to RC170 or desired length, continuing to change yarns and alternating needles each
time carriage is on the right hand side.
End patterning with COR.
10) Take carriage off hold and K1R to the L.
11) Back
stitch bind off.
12) Add a
border if desired.
ELECTRONIC MACHINES:
This technique is much easier and less time
consuming done on a punch card or electronic machine. A single bed color changer would be a luxury
to aid changing yarns every 2 rows but certainly not a necessity. Don’t let not having a color changer keep you
from using this wonderful patterning.
I have a Brother KH965i and used Stitchworld
pattern #256 with the elongate button activated. To my dismay, I didn’t get vertical stripes
but nice horizontal stripes, no matter if I started on row 2 or 1. So thinking thru my machine mechanics in
relation to the pattern, I concluded that the elongate key was the
culprit. This technique starts with row
2 of the Brother 820 punch card #2. The
elongate key freezes the pattern for 2 pattern rows, no matter which row number
is selected. Here are my 2 solutions:
1) Design
the pattern in DAK and download it to the machine, do NOT activate the elongate
key, and begin patterning with row 2.
2) Use
Stitchworld pattern #256, work pattern row #1, THEN turn on the elongate key. Then work the pattern as above, changing yarns
every 2 rows when carriage is on the left.
REMINDER: No matter which machine you use, the tuck patterning must begin with row 2 in the pattern repeat in order for the stripes to take effect.
Stitch Pattern: x
x
x
x
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| (Tuck side) |
 |
| (Striped side) |
This technique is nifty. Will have to try it. I'm thinking it would be a nice substitute for plain ribbing at the bottom of a sweater.
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely look good at the bottom of a jacket or sweater but it's a tuck pattern and wouldn't have the memory that actual ribbing would have. But I used cotton in the dishcloths; wool or acrylic might react differently. Give it a try and see how it behaves.
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