A Simple Lace and Cable Stitch Pattern

My love for learning new stitch patterns is well documented (I even just recently wrote a book review about a fun new book full of knitting stitch patterns, The New Knitting Stitch Dictionary).

Lilia Craft Party likes learning about, knitting up and sharing different stitch patterns, too. This one is called knitting stitch no. 19 on her blog, but to me it looks like little candle flames.

It’s made with easy eyelets for the bottom part of the flame and some traveling stitches (also known as cables, though these don’t twist together like cables normally do) that make what you could consider the outside of the flame or even like a little lantern holding the flame.

The trickiest part of this stitch pattern is the knit three together that’s worked at the top of each little flame section. It’s not actually hard, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. If you know how to knit 2 together, a knit 3 together is the same, just worked with three stitches into one instead of two. But it can be a little fiddly, especially on heavier weight yarn.

The sample of the stitch pattern shown above was worked on sock yarn, and this actually would be a fun pattern to add to the leg and top of a sock. The stitch pattern requires a multiple of 10, which would be perfect for me because I tend to use 60 stitches for my socks. You can always make a little swatch to see if the math works out for you, or add a couple of stitches to the back of the leg to make a faux seam that also helps to make the sock a bit bigger.

Lilia Craft Party has the pattern on her website, both written out and as a chart, so you can practice it and then add it to an upcoming knitting project. If you try it I’d love to know what you use it for!

[Photo: Lilia Craft Party]

One of my favorite things to make on a circular knitting machine is scarves, because they’re a great way to use leftover yarn and certainly faster than knitting by hand.

But if you pay attention to the colors you’re using and how you are using them, you can make fun knitting machine scarves that look like something different when you roll them up.

One of the first versions of this I saw was the sushi scarf, are there are a lot of variations on this one. For example this one from Flower and Anchor that uses five colors of yarn, or this one from Three Threads NE that uses four. These generally are made to look like California rolls, but you could change up the colors to make them different things if you like. Just make sure the outside of the “roll” is black or green to indicate the nori. I found another version on Pinterest if you’re looking for a free pattern, but there’s no image of it rolled up.

Another popular variation is making a scarf that rolls up to look like a mug with coffee, tea or another fun beverage inside. This collection of three mug scarf circular knitting machine patterns from Idaho Cottage Creation includes green tea, a pumpkin spice latte with whipped cream and a candy cane colored confection (which honestly reminds me of the Grinch since it has a green mug!). Again you can change the colors of the mug part and the drink part. The little handle looks like it’s crocheted on these, and it doubles as a loop you can thread the scarf end through when you wear it.

Again there’s a version of the green tea scarf on Pinterest with crocheted elements. I also found a latte done with a striped yarn and a red mug that’s pretty cute and gives you an idea what a different beverage would look like.

I also love this pumpkin pie scarf designed by Jodi Favish Saunier. It has a bit of crocheted edging to give it a fancy crust but you can omit that if you don’t crochet. These are all on Facebook but she also has a watermelon and lemonade pattern that are super cute.

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