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]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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