By Dana Gervais
Instagram handle: @DanaGervais
Dana Gervais is a knitwear designer who specializes in socks. She sees socks in every skein of sock yarn and has devoted her life to setting them free! Dana lives in Ontario, Canada, with her amazing husband, 2 super-awesome kids, 1 furry-lovey dog, and 2 fluffy-charming cats.
Inspiration: This is one of my favorite stitch patterns. It’s much easier than it looks. It’s really just a few rows of knits and purls with an occasional row of flair to keep it interesting. The “ears” use a bit more yarn than a typical knit or purl stitch, so be sure you have some extra yarn on hand just in case.
Tip: Always block your gauge swatch before counting the stitches and rows. Different fibers and fiber blends react differently to being washed; some may shrink and some may stretch, so always block your gauge swatch.
Special Techniques
MRL – Make Right Loop: Insert the right needle into the 4th st below the 3rd st on the left needle, wrap the working yarn counterclockwise around the needle, and pull the needle out of the stitch drawing up a loop on the right needle.
MLL – Make Left Loop: Insert the right needle into the same stitch as for MRL, wrap the working yarn counterclockwise around the needle, and pull the needle out of the stitch drawing up a loop on the right needle.
Switch Loop With Next St: Slip the loop off the left needle and hold in front of work, slip the next st pwise from the left needle to the right needle, return the loose loop to the left needle, and return the st from the right needle to the left needle. The loop is now the 2nd st on the left needle.
Wheat Ear Pattern (multiple of 5 stitches + 4)
Row 1 (RS): Sl1, *p2, MRL, k3, MLL; rep from * to last 3 sts, p3.
Row 2 (WS): Sl1, *k2, sl loop pwise wyif, p3, sl loop pwise wyif; rep from * to last 3 sts, k2, p1.
Row 3: Sl1, *p2, switch loop with next st, k2tog, k1, k2tog; rep from * to last 3 sts, p3.
Row 4: Sl1, *k2, p3; rep from * to last 3 sts, k2, p1.
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