KASAD4 Retreat and knitting tip.

Happy Star Wars Day everyone! May the fourth be with you today.


KASAD4: Retreat

This square is another beginner's square which will knit up quickly. One of the good things about this square is that you only need to change colour once, even though all the lines in the middle alternate in colour.

Since each line is two rows of knit stitch (one 'ridge'), it is thin enough that you don't need to finish the colour at the end of the row, start the next colour to finish it at the end of the row, then start the first colour again and so on, and then go back and weave in all the ends. Since it's so thin, for each 'line' you can just carry the unused colour up the side, and then start knitting again with it on the next row. It means that you only have one colour change in terms of weaving in the ends, which saves heaps of time.

Materials
- 8 ply yarn in two colours. Small amount only - approximately 30g each
- 6mm knitting needles
- yarn needle to weave in ends, scissors to cut yarn.

Skills and difficulty
Beginner knitter
- cast on
- cast off
- knit stitch
- changing colour at the end of row
- carrying unused colour between rows (as described above)

Colours
In this example, C1 is light blue and C2 is yellow

Procedure
1. Cast on 32 stitches
2. Knit every row in C1 (work in garter stitch) for 22 rows (11 ridges).
3. Knit 2 rows (1 ridge) in C2, carrying C1 up the side (that is, don't cut or weave in C1. Just leave it alone - don't touch it yet! :) )
4. Return to C1. Pick it up again (just let go of C2 and leave it there). Knit 2 rows (1 ridge).
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 twice. Now you should have 3 lines of C1 and 3 lines of C2, as well as the big block of C1 from step 2. End C1.
6. Knit every row in C1 (work in garter stitch) for 22 rows (11 ridges).
7. Cast off and leave a 50cm tail.
8. Weave in beginning end and butterfly the tail.

Variations
You can make more stripes in the middle by starting the lines (steps 3 and 4) earlier and continuing for longer. You just need to make sure that you have the same overall number of rows so that the finished square is 20cm (8 in) long, which for 6mm needles should be approximately 56 rows (28 ridges).

Return to all the KASAD posts