Flying Birds: a knitting stitch pattern

I took the chart from Scattered Tulips, condensed it, and ended up with the chart below. When I knitted it, it came out with a satisfyingly thick, open texture. I haven’t tried it with variegated yarn yet, but my suspicion is that it would work very well indeed with this structure.

I get a vague impression of flying birds when I look at this one. There’s another view of this stitch pattern from the side at the bottom of the post.

Posts in this series of stitch patterns based on Bunny Ears Yarnover

sample knitting for Flying Birds stitch, showing a thick, open texture and vague impression of flying birds.
chart explaining how to knit the Flying Birds pattern by means of special symbols. Written instructions in blog post.

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.
  • Flying Birds is a multiple of 4 + 5 stitches and 4 rows.
  • I’ve made a stitch map for it.
  • Designers, please feel free to use this in your patterns. I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it.
  • My blog posts and free stitch patterns are supported by subscriptions on Patreon or donations to my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. If you appreciate my work, please consider helping out. Thanks!

Abbreviations:

  • bunny ears yarnover: This is a variant on the bunny ears decrease, with a yarnover added in the middle. It turns three stitches into three stitches. Knit 2 together, but only remove the first stitch from the needle; yarn over, then work ssk with the second and third stitches. The middle stitch of the original three has been knit together with each of its neighbors. Blog post about bunny ears yarnover.
  • k: knit.
  • p: purl.
  • p1b: purl one below. For this stitch pattern, it’s not quite the same as a regular p1b, because it’s actually purling the bar below a yarnover, but the action is much the same. From behind, pick up the bar below the yarnover with the right needle and place it on the left needle next to the yarnover; purl both those strands at the same time. This prevents the bar from making a horizontal line in front of the yarnover.

Row 1 (RS): k1, *bunny ears yarnover, k1; work from *, bunny ears yarnover, k1.

Row 2 (WS): p2, p1b, *p3, p1b; work from *, p2.

Row 3: k2, *k1, bunny ears yarnover; work from *, k3.

Row 4: p3, *p1, p1b, p2; work from *, p2.

sample knitting for flying birds stitch, showing a side view of a thick, open texture