Then it was many:

Then it was suspiciously familiar:

A slight side-tracking into the joining method:

And now it’s revealed!

Before adding the handle:

And finished!

(well, maybe… I’m debating adding some blue along the tops of the hexes… we’ll see!)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my Settlers of Catan bag!

Some folks really like this join, and I’d always secretly thought that they’d talked themselves into liking it because it was faster and more fun than whip-stitching. I have to admit, it’s starting to grow on me!

It’s not hard to do, as I mentioned, you just hold the two motifs together and do sc stitches into a stitch on each of them, at the same time. Hold them right-side out if you want the ridge on the front, and right sides together if you want it on the back.

They each measure about 5″ from side to side. I’m thinking of joining them with sc stitches… I’ve never really liked the look of that joining method, but I’m going to give it another try, as whip-stitching them all together isn’t my idea of fun.

It’s NatCroMo; I’m supposed to have fun!

Here’s the (lazy) pattern:

R1: *dc, ch1* 6 times
R2: *3dc in ch1 sp, ch1* 6 times
R3: *3dc, ch1, 3dc all in ch1 sp* 6 times
R4: 1dc in each previous dc, *dc, ch1, dc* in ch1 sp (8 dc per side)
R5: same as R4 (10 dc per side)

I’ve made a few of them:

What could I possibly be up to? ^_-

I made this for a motif swap I was in. It was a scavenger-hunt-style swap, and one of the motifs we were to “look for” was one we designed ourselves, and this was mine!

Here it is again in white:

(Um… it snows in the Yukon Territory! Snow is white! Yes, it’s all coming together now…)

Now, I’ve written this pattern in my usual, lazy style. There is no mention of how to start it, so start it however you like to start a motif made in the round. Use a Magic Ring, or just work into the first chain you made, or whatever floats your boat. I also haven’t described any turning chains. Every round is made up of dc stitches, so use something appropriate. I used no-turning-chain-dc stitches, but you could also use a ch2 or ch3. Whatever you use, treat it like a regular dc stitch for the sake of the pattern.

Oh, and don’t forget to join each round. No spirals here!

Octagon Motif:
rnd1: *dc, ch1* 8 times
rnd2: *2dc in ch1 space, ch1* 8 times
rnd3: *2dc, ch1, 2dc in ch1 space* 8 times
rnd4: *3dc, ch1, 3dc in ch1 space, dc in other space* 8 times

The good news is that this means that designers will usually define their special stitches right there in the pattern, so they could call it a Shazbut Special, and it wouldn’t matter because they tell you what it is.

The bad news is that finding more help on these stitch patterns isn’t easy. That pattern the designer called the Shazbut Special might be called Busker’s Delight by the person who posted the tutorial video to youtube.

I bring this up because I recently came across a pattern that called for the moss stitch. Before this point in my life, I was only aware of the moss stitch as refered to by knitters. Luckily, there was a link to a youtube tutorial.

I made up a swatch:

We’ll call this one “Moss Stitch HalfDouble-SlipStitch” because it’s made up of a pattern of *hdc, slst* repeated, with each subsequent row made up of doing an hdc into a slst, and a slst into an hdc.

Those instructions might sound a little bit familiar to some of you, as they are eerily similar to this:

which we’ll call “Moss Stitch Double-Single”, and some of you might recognise as the stitch pattern I use in my Diet Coke Bottle Cozies. Basically, it is a row of *dc, sc* repeated, and in subsequent rows you work a dc into a sc, and a sc into a dc. I didn’t know it was called “moss stitch” when I chose it for my cozies… I just thought it looked neat. Not too stretchy, not too tight.

Finally, there is a third stitch pattern that is referred to as “moss stitch”:

and we’ll call it “Moss Stitch Single-Chain1″ for it is made by repeating *sc, ch1* a bunch of times (and ending with a sc), and in subsequent rows you work your sc into the ch1 space.

I’d say this one has the nicest drape of the three moss stitches, and it didn’t curl up in the corners like the others. I do believe I’m going to make a blanket using this stitch. We’ll see!

Extra bonus today:

I tried out the stitch height experiment with two colours.

It’s a bit wonky, but I think that would go away with a larger example. What do you think?

This swatch starts with a regular row of dc stitches. The second row was an attempt at a technique that I’d only heard of in passing. Basically, you skip a stitch, dc in the next, dc in the next (repeat as desired), then do a longer stitch (in this case, a tc) into the stitch you skipped. Then you repeat. The next row is more dc, and the top two are more of this technique.

What do you think?

How? Well, the basic concept is that you insert your hook into a stitch, pull up a loop, insert your hook into the next stitch, pull a loop up, yarn over, and pull through all three loops. For the next stitch, insert your hook into the last stitch you just worked into and pull up a loop, and pull up a loop in the next stitch, and finish the sc2tog, and continue like this.

I tried this working in rows first:

And while it’s ok, it really doesn’t give the full feel of the stitches.

So, here it is again, but in the round (a tube) :

It creates a fabric that is sort of bumpy on one side, and quite smooth on the other, with an even grid of holes between the stitches.

Here it is again in the round, but with a lighter, variegated yarn:

I love the way the stitches look… like rows and rows of tiny balls of yarn. ^_^

The question now is, what do we do with this stitch? I think it might make a good coffeecup cozy fabric, but other than that, I’m stumped! Ideas?

And here is the pattern:

Work in rows, leave a long starting tail
ch6
R1: sc in second chain from hook, hdc, dc, htc, tc. ch4 (counts as a tc) turn
R2: htc, dc, hdc, sc, ch1, turn
Repeat these two rows until you have 15 rows.
Use the starting tail to sew the bottom of the first row to the top of the last row. Weave in end.

Working in the round, make 4 sc around the tc stitches around the edge. Join to first sc. Weave in end.

(As always, please let me know if you try this pattern, and if you come across any errors!)

Here we have some fun with stitch height:

Pattern: ch10(ish), tc, htc, dc, hdc, sc, turn, ch5, tc, htc, dc, hdc, sc.

After making this, I thought I’d try it with more stitches. Basically the same pattern as above, but 2 of every stitch:

(The extra fuzz is from frogging a few times. Experimenting is like that!)

And the same again, but with 4 of each:

I’m not sure if you can tell from the pics, but they didn’t come out as perfectly rectangular as I’d pictured them in my head. I’m going to have to tinker with this a bit before doing it on a larger scale.

Celebrate NatCroMo by learning something new, or just pick up your hook and yarn and start stitching. You may be surprised at what you end up with!