Seed Stitch....It Really Isn't Boring

Seed stitch.....I used to think it was as interesting as watching the grass grow.  Over the past few weeks I have grown to appreciate it as I have never done before.

This started with the need to make a cowl for a friend fairly quickly.   My friend Dottie is very petite and somewhat frail.   She gets really cold.  Last winter, I have her a cowl I had made with some leftover yarn.  She loved it...and this fall asked for another.    I picked up some Encore Chunky in a really cheerful red.    For a long time, I looked at different cowl patterns.  I could not settle on anything.   The Gaptastic Cowl kept coming to mind.  She did not want that large a cowl so I

Encore Chunky Cowl in Seed Stitch

improvised!   I cast on until I liked the length of what I was doing and counted to make sure that I had an uneven number of stitches.   I did the first round in a purl stitch and the second in a knit...then I shifted to the seed stitch.   I knit until I was close to the end of a second skein of yarn as the length was in the neighborhood of what I thought would work for Dottie.  I did the last row and the bind off in a garter stitch to match the ends.  The picture is awful but shows what it looks like....

As I am journeying though the stash, I went looking for yarn for another project in my personal yarn store.   I did not find what I was looking for (and wonder where I put that) but found three skeins of James C. Brett's Marble Chunky.  That is nearly one thousand yards combined.   I decided to continue my fun with the seed stitch.   I swatched.   I nearly always swatch.   This will grow up to be a throw.    The recipe I am using is simple but, with the variegation of the yarn, really nice.

The recipe for the throw....Cast on on uneven number of stitches.    Knit the first two rows.   Next row...and all rows until the last one...  K1, *K1,P1*, K1.    Knit the last row.  Bind off with a knit stitch.  

So far I am liking this a lot.  I will have a picture of the progress in a day or so.   I am using size 10 or 10.5 needles.   So far, the first skein has given me seventeen inches.   Dare I hope for 20????