Solitude: a free lace knitting stitch

Each month, my Patreon supporters have a chance to suggest a word for me to encode as a knitting stitch, and each month a random number generator helps me choose which one to use. (Some months, nobody suggests a word, and then the RNG picks from the hoard of words I’ve build up from previous months.)

This month, there were two words, and so I used a coin toss. The flip of the coin picked solitude, suggested by Nim. It was extra appropriate, as my family was away and I had a blissful ten days to be as much of an introverted hermit as I chose. (And welcome them home again cheerfully.)

So I turned the letters of solitude into numbers in base 6, and charted them out on digital graph paper in different ways. Then I swatched one possibility, a second possibility, and then finally found a layout I liked. This particular layout finally gave me the chance to use  KYOKs as part of the lace, as I’d practiced with my Étude no. 11.

I like how floral and plantlike this one seems to be.

Solitude: a free lace knitting stitch for any craft

Solitude: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

Notes:

  • This is a stitch pattern such as might be found in a stitch dictionary. It is not a pattern for a finished object. You will need to add selvedges or some other form of knitted stitches to either side.
  • Solitude is a multiple of 16+1 stitches and 14 rows.
  • I’ve made a stitch map for it.
  • Designers, please feel free to use this stitch in your patterns. I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it.
  • If you like my posts like this, please consider supporting me on Patreon or donating with my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. Thanks!

Abbreviations:

  • CDD: centered double decrease: slip the next 2 stitches as if to knit 2 together, knit the next stitch, then pass the 2 slipped stitches over the third.
  • DSD: double slip decrease; ssk, slip the resulting stitch back to the left needle, pass the next stitch over, then slip the result. (Right-leaning double decrease. Substitute knit 3 together if desired; they are similar but don’t look quite the same.)
  • k: knit.
  • k2tog: knit 2 stitches together as if they were 1. (Right-leaning decrease)
  • k3tog: knit 3 stitches together as if they were 1. (Right-leaning double decrease)
  • KYOK: (k1, yo, k1) in 1 stitch. Increases 2 stitches.
  • p: purl.
  • sk2p: slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over. (Left-leaning double decrease.)
  • ssk: slip each of the next 2 stitches as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop. (Left-leaning decrease)
  • sssk: slip each of the next 3 stitches as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop. (Left-leaning double decrease. Substitute sk2p if desired.)
  • yo: yarnover.

Row 1 (RS): *p1, k4, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k4; work from *, p1. [17 sts]
Row 2 (WS): k1, *p15, k1; work from *.
Row 3: *p1, k2, DSD, yo x 2, k5, yo x 2, sk2p, k2; work from *, p1.
Row 4: k1, *p3, (k1, p1) in double YO, p5, (k1, p1) in double YO, p3, k1; work from *.
Row 5: *p1, DSD, yo x 2, k3, yo, cdd, yo, k3, yo x 2, sk2p; work from *, p1.
Row 6: k1, *p1, (k1, p1) in double YO, p9, (k1, p1) in double YO, p1, k1; work from *.
Row 7: *p1, ssk, k1, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k1, yo, k1, k2tog; work from *, p1.
Row 8: k1, *p15, k1; work from *.
Row 9: *p1, ssk, yo, k3tog, k2, yo, (k1, yo, k1) in 1 stitch, yo, k2, sssk, yo, k2tog; work from *, p1.
Row 10: k1, *p15, k1; work from *.
Row 11: *p1, yo, DSD, k2tog, yo, k2, (k1, yo, k1) in 1 stitch, k2, yo, ssk, sk2p, yo; work from *, p1.
Row 12: k1, *p14, k2; work from *.
Row 13: *p1, k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k2tog, k3, ssk, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k1; work from *, p1.
Row 14: k1, *p15, k1; work from *.

Errata:
17 Jan 2017: Fixed missing purl dot in row 4 of chart, clarified instructions for how to work double  YOs on wrong side for rows 4 & 6.

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