by Dilys Sutherland (c) 1998
A plaid effect is created by knitting the piece in garter stitch, then dropping a few stitches, and weaving more yarn through the resulting ladders.
Materials:
One pair 5 mm (US 8) needles
Worsted weight cotton in three colours.
Throughout this piece, change colours every few rows.
Cast on 20 stitches. Knit in garter stitch, using a variety of colour stripes, for 50 rows. Break yarn leaving a tail of three feet.
Now you need to create the "ladders" for weaving. Cast off 3 stitches, pulling the tail all the way through the last cast-off stitch. Drop 2 stitches and "un-do" them all the way down, leaving a wide ladder in the piece. With the tail, cast off the next 5 stitches, but make sure not to close up the top of the ladder! Keep the yarn at the top of the ladder as long as the ladder is wide.
Now continue: After pulling the tail all the way through the last cast off stitch again, drop 1 stitch, cast off 2. Pull tail through. Drop 2 stitches, cast off 2. Pull tail through. Drop 1 stitch, and cast off last 2 stitches. You will have a cloth with stripes of ladder and garter stitch.
With a long darning needle threaded with a double thickness of cotton, and using a variety of colours, weave yarn through the ladders of your cloth. You should be able to make 3 or 4 passes of the cotton for every stitch dropped. Weave ends into fabric.
