keffiyah fishing net pattern

posted on by Lee Cattarin

a knitted swatch. it's mostly white yarn, but a grid of dark red- purple- green yarn that looks like a chain link fence is built into it. the diagonal lines are achieved with floats of yarn from one row, then picked up and knit into several rows later.

give

this pattern is offered at no cost, but I highly encourage giving to Palestinian relief work.

abbreviations

abbr term
MC main color (light in swatch shown)
CC contrast color (dark in swatch shown)
RS right side
WS wrong side
k knit
sl slip
wyif with yarn in front
p purl

techniques

knit into a float

in this pattern, you will be creating floats on the front of the work, then picking them up and knitting into them 3 rows later. Do this as part of the stitch you are working, not instead of! You should have the same number of stitches afterwards.

when you pick up a float, you want it to sit in front of the worked stitch, and untwisted. To achieve this, I have been catching the float on my right needle by dipping the needle down and under the float, from the front to the back. From there, I work the stitch, then slip the float over the new stitch on my right needle.

knit flat

cast on

knit flat, the pattern repeat uses 6n + 1 stitches. In the swatch shown, I cast on 29 stitches - 2 on each side for selvedge, then 25 – 6 * 4 + 1. To simplify things, I’ll write the pattern for the swatch, selvedge and all - but please adapt as you see fit.

with MC, cast on 29 stitches.

establish the pattern

  • row 0 (WS): with MC, knit to last stitch, sl1 wyif
  • row 1 (RS):
    • with MC, k2
    • [with CC, k1; with MC, k5] * 4, then with CC, k1
    • with MC, k2
  • row 2 (WS):
    • with MC, k1, p1
    • [with CC, k1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, p5] * 4, then with CC, k1 and bring working yarn back to WS
    • with MC, p1, sl1 wyif

pattern repeat

  • row 3 (RS): with MC, knit to last stitch, sl1 wyif
  • row 4 (WS): with MC, k1, purl to last stitch, sl1 wyif
  • row 5 (RS):
    • with MC, k5
    • [with CC, k1 into the float from 3 rows below; with MC, k5] * 4
    • with MC, k5
  • row 6 (RS):
    • with MC, k1, p4
    • [with CC, k1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, p5] * 4 – on the last repeat, move working yarn back to WS before purling
    • with MC, p4, sl1 wyif
  • rows 7-8: repeat rows 3-4
  • row 9 (RS):
    • with MC, k2
    • [with CC, k1 into the float from 3 rows below; with MC, k5] * 4, then with CC, k1
    • with MC, k2
  • row 10 (WS):
    • with MC, k1, p1
    • [with CC, k1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, p5] * 4, then with CC, k1 and bring working yarn back to WS
    • with MC, p1, sl1 wyif

close the pattern

end after rows 5 or 9 of the pattern repeat. replace row 6 or 10 with the following:

  • row 6 alteration:
    • with MC, k1, p4
    • [with CC, k1; with MC, p5] * 4
    • with MC, p4, sl1 wyif
  • row 10 alteration:
    • with MC, k1, p1
    • [with CC, k1; with MC, p5] * 4, then with CC, k1
    • with MC, p1, sl1 wyif

to end my swatch, I did the following:

  • row (WS): k1, purl to last stitch, sl1 wyif
  • row (RS): bind off

knit in the round

cast on

with MC, cast on a multiple of 6 stitches. knit in plain stockinette until you are ready to start the pattern.

establish the pattern

  • row 1:
    • [with CC, k1; with MC, k5] repeat to last 6 stitches
    • with CC, k1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, k5
  • row 2:
    • [with CC, p1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, k5] repeat to last 6 stitches
    • with CC, p1 and move working yarn to WS; with MC, k5

pattern repeat

  • rows 3-4: with MC, knit all stitches
  • row 5:
    • with MC, k3
    • [with CC, k1 into the float from 3 rows below; with MC, k5] repeat to last 3 stitches
    • with CC, k1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, k2
  • row 6:
    • with MC, k3
    • [with CC, p1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, k5] repeat to last 3 stitches
    • with CC, p1 and moving working yarn to WS; with MC, k2
  • rows 7-8: repeat rows 3-4
  • row 9:
    • [with CC, k1 into the float from 3 rows below; with MC, k5] repeat to last 6 stitches
    • with CC, k1 into the float from 3 rows below and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, k5
  • rows 10:
    • [with CC, p1 and leave working yarn on RS; with MC, k5] repeat to last 6 stitches
    • with CC, p1 and move working yarn to WS; with MC, k5

close the pattern

end after rows 5 or 9 of the pattern repeat. replace row 6 or 10 with the following:

  • row 6 alteration:
    • with MC, k3
    • [with CC, p1; with MC, k5] repeat to last 3 stitches
    • with CC, p1; with MC, k2
  • row 10 alteration: [with CC, p1; with MC, k5] repeat for all stitches

with MC, knit in plain stockinette until you want to bind off, then bind off.

category: reference

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