Fleck stitch knitted in Super Saver Pooling

Yesterday I played with Red Heart Dreamy Stripes using bi-directional herringbone stitch, it offered quite an effect! I’ll play some more using the fleck stitch this time.

Interrupting the colors in a painted yarn like Red Heart Super Saver Pooling is a design strategy I like to use to make strands of one color lay across one of the others. The fleck stitch does this very well.

To make the fleck stitch, one starts with 2 stitches and ends with 3. Naturally, repeating this across a row would increase the stitch count substantially. To combat this, bunny ear decreases (I talked about a version of these in my post, Bunny Ear decreases…) are needed to return the stitch count back to normal.

How to work the fleck stitch

1. Bring yarn over the top of the right-hand needle and then back down between the needles to the back of the work.
2. Insert the tip of the right-hand needle into the front leg of the next stitch, knit the stitch but don’t slide it off the left-hand needle.
3. Bring the yarn forward, insert the right-hand needle back into the same stitch and then into the back leg of the next stitch and knit them together and slide off the left-hand needle.
4. Take that first yarn over, it’s the fourth stitch on the right-hand needle, and pass it over all the first 3 stitches.

How to work the bunny ear decrease

1. Insert the right-hand needle into the next 2 stitches as if to knit them together through the front legs.
2. Wrap the yarn and bring it up between the first and second front legs.
3. Slide everything off the left-hand needle.
4. Knit the next st, then take the dropped leg, which now looks like an obvious diagonal strand and pass it over the first 2 stitches on the right-hand needle.

I had to experiment with how frequently I worked the textured rows, so you may notice some sections of the swatch have more rows of stockinette stitch in between. I still can’t decide which one I like better, so I’ll let you choose.

Fleck Stitch Pattern

abbreviations

K=knit; p=purl; fle-st = fleck stitch; b-ears = bunny ear decrease; sl = slip 1 purlwise; rep = repeat; RS = right side.

instructions

With US8 [5mm] needles, cast on a multiple of 5 stitches, plus 6. There are 51 stitches on this swatch.

Row 1 (RS): Knit.

Row 2: Sl 1, k2, purl to last 3 sts, k3.

Row 3: Sl 1, k2, *fle-st, k3; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3—the stitch count will increase by the number of times you repeat the fleck stitch.

Row 4: Sl 1, k2, purl to last 3 sts, k3.

Row 5: Sl 1, k2, *k3, b-ears; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3—the stitch count returns to the original.

Row 6: Rep Row 4.

Row 7: Sl 1, k2, *k3, fle-st; rep from * across to last 3 sts, k3—stitch count increases by number of motif repeats.

Row 8: Rep Row 4.

Row 9: Sl 1, k2, *b-ears, k3; rep from * across to last 3 sts, k3—stitch count back to original.

Row 10: Rep Row 4.

Rep rows 3-10 for pattern.

If you want to work two rows of stockinette between rows 6 and 7, that’s also a possibility.

When the piece is almost square, end with a RS row. Then knit 2 rows. Then with the WS facing bind off as follows: [P2tog, slip stitch back to left-hand needle] rep between [ ] across.

I hope you try this fun fleck stitch in Super Saver Pooling soon. Let me know what you think! join me tomorrow for another fun knitting stitch pattern!