O.K., I have got to put a coherent (not like my notes! :0 ) set of instructions here. Soon.
I will be making many of these, exactly how many? Dunno yet.
So I am making one and recording how I do it now…
everything on machine set up for thickest yarn possible, T.D. @ 10.
Bring forward every other needle from 26L to 25R. 26 needles total. Make a little bundle of yarn about 44” long ( for easy seaming later) before the slipknot that starts the e-loop cast on. Letting the bundle dangle from the first needle, do an e-loop cast on from left to right, hang the cast on comb, add weights, (4) and knit 32 rows. Carriage will be on the right.
Drop stitches that will form the mock braid off of needles. These are:
22L, 20L, 18L, 10L, 8L, 6L.
and:
5R, 7R, 9R, 17R, 19R, 21R.
Pick up the remaining (14) stitches off of their hooks using a stitch holder. Do not cut yarn! Remove yarn from carriage, and pull enough from the ball that the piece can be held and worked on easily, fixing it in the yarn-holder on the mast.
Turn piece around so right side is facing, starting on the left side, undo a column 3 stitches (the first three not on the holder) wide all the way to the bottom (cast-on row) of the piece. Form mock braid hooking two rungs at a time (using the technique from the bond buzz #19 newsletter) until you reach the top and have only 1 rung left, hook this rung by itself and place the loop on a second stitch holder. Repeat the process for the mock braid three more times with the other unlatched stitches, placing the last loop of each column on the second stitch holder. Now there will be four columns of latched mock braid. To make it easy to re-hang the stitches on the machine, it is best that both stitch holders point the same direction, that is, the direction of the one holding the stitches that were not re-latched. To do this run a third stitch holder through the four loops on the second stitch holder in the opposite direction, then remove the second stitch holder.
Re-hang the piece, wrong side facing. Working right to left, start with 25R, re-hanging the un-relatched loops where they were before, and the four loops that are on the second stitch holder onto needles 19R, 7R, 8L, and 20L.
Re-thread the carriage and release the yarn from the holder on the mast, restoring proper tension for knitting.
Knit six more rows. Eyelets will form on the first row for adding the I-cord later.
Cut the yarn leaving enough for a sewn bind-off plus mattress stitch down the side of the pouch. I leave four times the width of the piece on the machine + two times the length.
More later…