The cross-stitch pattern produces a lovely dense fabric that looks like it could have been woven rather than knitted. Joie brought this pattern to our shop three years ago, but it seemed that it just lost among the sweaters and shawls. Then another knitter, Val, kept bringing her project back in and it became clear that we needed to revisit this lovely knit technique.

My recommendation is to make sure  you go up about two needle sizes above the yarns recommendation. I am currently swatching out a sample on my Sheepwalk hand dyed yarn. This fingering weight does well on anything from 3-8. However, I want to get decent stitch definition. So my needle choice is a US 5. You can use the Sheepwalk yarn on metal or wood. You choose your weapon

Cross Stitch Scarf 

Multiples of 2 + 1. This pattern will yield a basic scarf.
Bulky: Cast on 25 Stitches
Worsted: Cast on 31 Stitches
Sport: Cast on 37 Stitches
Fingering: Cast on 45 Stitches
For a wrap, my feeling is that you should go up 3 needle sizes and then on Fingering, for instance, cast on 125 Stitches.

Cross-Stitch Pattern

Row 1: *Knit the 2nd stitch in the back loop without removing it by reaching behind and inserting the purl-wise ( between 1st and 2nd stitch), then twist needle forward and knit the 1st stitch. Slip both stitches off. *Repeat until the last stitch, k1.

Row 2: Purl the 2nd stitch, leaving it on the needle, then purl the 1st stitch and take both off left needle. *Repeat to the last stitch, p1.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 for the pattern.

Knitting The Scarf

Cast on 45 stitches (fingering). Place a marker after first two stitches and before last two stitches.

Row 1: k2, PM, knit to last two stitches, PM, k2

Row 2: k2, SM, purl to last two stitches, SM, k2

Row 3: k2, SM, work row 1 of Cross-Stitch pattern, SM, k2

Row 4: k2, SM, work row 2 of Cross-Stitch pattern, SM, k2

Repeat Rows 3 and 4 until desired length.

End Row 1: knit all stitches

Bind off on wrong side using a stretch bind off. The basic stretchy bind off is to knit two stitches. Insert your left needle in to the front of those two stitches and knit those two stitches together. This is similar to an SSK (slip, slip, knit).

© This pattern is based on a stitch and is free to be used by all. Compliments of Suzoo’s Wool Works, LLC