I was playing around with stitch patterns again (big shock, eh?) and found a type of seed stitch that doesn’t require purling. It is, instead, based on slipped stitches and looks pretty neat.
It’s from the 365 Knitting Stitches a Year calendar and is called “Moss Slip Stitch”. It’s done over an odd number of stitches.
1 (right side) K1, *sl1, K1; repeat from * to end.
2 K1, *sl1 wyif, K1; repeat from * to end.
3 K2, *sl1, K1; repeat from * to last stitch, K1.
4 K2, *sl1 wyif, K1; repeat from * to last stitch, K1.
Repeat these four rows for the pattern.
The swatch shows both the standard seed stitch at the top and the slip stitch version on the bottom.
Because of the slipped stitches, the fabric is compressed both horizontally and vertically and is quite dense. The texture is very clearly defined in this version which uses wraps to simulate the purls of the standard version.
Regular seed stitch is also very attractive and doesn’t work up to the same kind of bulk. It makes a thinner fabric and is generally considered to work up at the same gauge as stockinette.
In the swatch, I was fascinated to note that after the slip stitch version was completed, the fabric spread out during the stockinette portion which was worked only to give a visual separation between the two texture stitches. But, when I started to work the regular seed stitch part, the fabric spread out even further. What I don’t know is how much of that might be related to slip stitch compression and how much is just what’s inherent in the stitch patterns themselves.
Anybody got any ideas?
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The other thing that might be affecting the “spreading” of your swatch is the looseness/tightness of your cast-on versus the looseness/tightness of your cast-off, especially on such a small swatch. Love that pink, though!
You know, I hadn’t thought of that - thanks for mentioning it. I tried to keep the cast off from spreading as that’s something I often have a problem with.
Myria is the “pink” fan in our house. Oh I like it fine - on her :)
Poor Purl! She’s so maligned. I’m one of those knitting weirdos who actually purls quicker and easier than knitting.
Marcia - I don’t dislike purling nearly as much since I learned to knit backwards, though that’s not a reasonable approach to seed stitch. Sure evened out my tension for stockinette though, and goes a lot faster for me than the usual purling method.
Robbyn - by knitting backwards - do you mean English knitting? That is, holding the yarn in your left hand, as if to crochet, and making the needles do all the work, not removing your right hand to flip the yarn over the needle? I’m asking because when I finally accomplished this, my knitting speed increased tremendously. Much more even stitches, tension of yarn is no longer a problem for me. These factors then led me to become more brave in attempting different/new stitches also. Love your blog!
connie
Hi Connie :)
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/tips/knitbackwards.html
...shows the exact method I use, except the woman in the movie is doing too much work :) She’s wrapping the yarn and I find that I can just scoop it up with the left needle and pull it through.
