Tutorial: I-cord Knitting Bind Off

1. The finished piece, ready to bind off.

2. Knit 2 stitches

3. Knit the next 2 stitches together through the back loops

(k2togtbl)

4. You now have 3 stitches on your right-hand needle

5. Slip the 3 stitches from your right-hand needle purlwise to the left-hand needle. (Note that this photo is after a few stitches have been bound off.)

6. Repeat (k2, k2togtbl, slip 3 sts to left-hand needle), until 3 stitches remain on each needle.

7. Cut yarn leaving a 6-inch tail. Turn right-hand needle away from you and hold behind left-hand needle

Graft the two ends together using Kitchener stitch (follow steps 8-12 if you are unfamiliar with Kitchener stitch).

8. Run the yarn tail through the first stitch on the front needle purlwise, leaving the stitch on its needle

9. Run the yarn tail through the first stitch on the back needle knitwise, leaving the stitch on its needle

10. Run the yarn tail through the first stitch on the front needle, knitwise, letting the stitch fall from its needle

11. Run the yarn tail through the first stitch on the front needle purlwise, leaving the stitch on its needle

12. Run the yarn tail through the first stitch on the back needle, purlwise, letting the stitch fall from its needle

13. Run the yarn tail through the first stitch on the back needle knitwise, leaving the stitch on its needle

Repeat steps 10-13 once. Repeat step 10. Repeat step 12. Gently tug on the new stitches to even them out. Weave in ends and block.

Before blocking

After blocking

Everywear: Unusual Triangle Shawl Knitting Pattern

Everywear is available on Ravelry and Etsy.

Everywear is a large triangle knit side-to-side. The three differently shaped and textured sections meet at the lower point, creating vertical color blocks when the shawl is worn.

The pattern starts with a textured, striped arrow. In the next section the inside of the arrow is filled in with stockinette stitch using short rows. The final section is worked in garter stitch and uses more short rows to finish shaping the triangle.

Everywear is part of an exploration in stockinette and garter two-row stripes that I’ve been working on since late 2018. Other shawls in the series are Everywhen and Everyone.

This shawl is knit using two skeins of Socks That Rock Lightweight by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I used colorways Manzanitaville and Stumptown Brown. Manzanitaville is an exclusive colorway to Coastal Yarns in Cannon Beach, OR. It’s the first LYS I ever visited and I make it a point to buy something every time I find myself nearby. You can shop their website at coastalyarns.com.

Buy Everywear on Ravelry or Etsy.

#EverywhenShawl #EveryoneShawl #EverywearShawl

See Everywhen on Ravelry or Etsy.

See Everyone on Ravelry or Etsy.

Tutorial: I-Cord Knitting Cast On

I love the i-cord cast-on because it gives a perfectly smooth edge to your work! I’ll show you how to knit the i-cord cast-on. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty simple to do. You can use whatever needles you’re using for your knitting project, you don’t need double pointed needles for the i-cord cast- on. Here are the steps:

Cast on 3 stitches using the knitted cast-on.

2. Knit into the first stitch without dropping the original stitch from the left-hand needle. 3. Knit into the back of the same stitch and let the original stitch fall from the left-hand needle. You have just performed a kfb, or knit into the front and back of a stitch, increasing your stitch count by one. 4. Knit 2 stitches.
You now have 4 stitches on your right-hand needle. 5. Slip 3 stitches, purlwise, from your right-hand needle to your left-hand needle. Repeat steps 2-5 until you have the desired number of stitches. Don’t forget to include the 3 i-cord stitches when counting your total. When you have the required number of stitches, don’t slip the 3 stitches back to the left-hand needle. Just turn your work and start knitting. I like to start with a wrong-side row because I think the other side of the i-cord cast-on looks nicer, but that’s just my preference.

I used Knit Picks Swish yarn in this tutorial. Now that you know how to knit the i-cord cast-on, you can learn how to do the matching i-cord bind-off here. Try out your new i-cord skills by knitting my free pocket shawl pattern, Inanna.