Fresh: a lace knitting stitch pattern

Posted on by

The word I drew from the words suggested on Patreon for this post is Fresh, suggested by Kate, a Patreon supporter. It’s a cheering word for February, which I often find a dismal month where I live.

It’s been a while since I made hexagonal mesh lace from an encoded word, but once again I was having trouble with making fresh into my usual sort of lace, and I didn’t think that it was going to work well as cables either. So a hex lace panel it is! See the bottom of this post for a summary of the design process.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. A random number generator helps me choose which word I will encode from these, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways.

I also made a Fresh charted design for any craft that uses a square grid for designing.

The stitch patterns are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Two bands of hexagonal mesh alternate with a central solid band that has hexagons or snowflakes made of openwork hexagons in it.
Chart showing how to knit Fresh lace by means of special symbols.
click chart to enlarge

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.
  • This could be knitted as an allover design, but it’s wide enough that I didn’t have the time for more than one repeat in my sample.
  • Fresh is a multiple of 24 + 4 stitches and 24 + 2 rows.
  • I’ve made a stitch map for Fresh.
  • 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:

  • k: knit.
  • k2tog: knit 2 stitches together as if they were 1. (Right-leaning decrease)
  • p: purl.
  • ssk: slip each of the next 2 stitches as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop. (Or substitute your favorite left-leaning decrease)
  • yo: yarnover. Bring the yarn forward between the needles so that it will make a loop over the needle when the next stitch is worked. When there are two in a row, bring the yarn forward, wrap it once around the needle, and leave the yarn in front so it makes a second loop.

Row 1 (RS): k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2, k4, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 3; work from *.

Row 2 (WS): *p1, [(k1, p1) in double yo, p2] × 2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1.

Row 3: yo, ssk, *k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k16, k2tog, yo × 2, ssk; work from *, k2tog, yo.

Row 4: p2, *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p18, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p2.

Row 5: k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, *k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k12, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *.

Row 6: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p14, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1.

Row 7: yo, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k4, k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *, k2tog, yo.

Row 8: p2, *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p2.

Row 9: k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k4) × 2, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *.

Row 10: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, [(k1, p1) in double yo, p6] × 2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1.

Row 11: yo, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k4, k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *, k2tog, yo.

Row 12: p2, *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p2.

Row 13: k4, *k4, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 3, k8; work from *.

Row 14: *p9, [(k1, p1) in double yo, p2] × 2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p5; work from *, p4.

Row 15: yo, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k4, k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *, k2tog, yo.

Row 16: p2, *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p2.

Row 17: k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k4) × 2, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *.

Row 18: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, [(k1, p1) in double yo, p6] × 2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1.

Row 19: yo, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k4, k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *, k2tog, yo.

Row 20: p2, *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p2.

Row 21: k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, *k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k12, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2; work from *.

Row 22: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p14, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1.

Row 23: yo, ssk, *k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, k16, k2tog, yo × 2, ssk; work from *, k2tog, yo.

Row 24: p2, *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p18, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p2.

Work rows 1-24 as desired, ending with rows 25 & 26.

Row 25: k2tog, yo × 2, ssk, *(k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 2, k4, (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk) × 3; work from *.

Row 26: *p1, [(k1, p1) in double yo, p2] × 2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *, p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1.

How I charted Fresh

For this chart, I used the binary encoding for the letters of Fresh: 00110 10010 00101 10011 01000

Then I removed the spaces between words and added new line breaks. Because of the way hexagons alternate from row to row, and because of the particular width of the chart I decided on, those line breaks look like this:

0011
010
0100
010
1100
110
1000

Alternating rows of hexagons match the alternating rows of binary: light, light, dark, dark. light, dark, light. light, dark, light, light. light, dark, light. dark, dark, light, light. dark, dark, light. dark, light, light, light.
Click image to enlarge

Then I converted them to rows of hexagons. Because this is binary, the easiest way to do this was to use light hexagons for the zeroes and dark hexagons for the ones. Also, it was easier to see what I was doing without packing the rows of hexagons together the way they’d be in the end.

The rows have been compressed to make honeycomb with some hexagons dark and some light.

Next I nestled the rows together to make honeycomb. How the pattern will look is starting to be clearer.

The previous honeycomb chart, mirrored vertically and horizontally. There’s a kind of boxy shape in the middle, with a stylized snowflake inside. There’s a single dark hexagon to either side of the boxy shape.
Click image to enlarge

Finally I mirrored the pattern from side to side and vertically along the middle of the relevant lines of hexagons. It’s a good thing I liked the vertical mirroring, because it’s necessary when there’s an odd number of rows of hexagons in the original encoding. (Otherwise I’d have to add a blank filler row.)

Once I decided that this was the design I wanted to use, I turned it into the knitting chart above. Fortunately, each hexagon can be charted on one row of knitting using only four stitches. I charted every dark hexagon with four knit stitches and every light one with (k2tog, yo × 2, ssk). The wrong side rows follow logically: every knit stitch from the previous row gets purled, and the four stitches above the decreases and increases are worked as [p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1]. The top halves of each hexagon take care of themselves when the next hexagon row is charted.

Alternate right side rows need two filler stitches at each end to account for the hexagons being stacked like bricks: (yo, ssk) at the beginning, and (k2tog, yo) at the other end. These stitches are purled on the wrong side rows.

I could have charted the dark hexagons as lace and the light hexagons as plain knitting. You can try it if you’d like! It won’t affect this kind of encoding in the slightest.