Komi Patterned Knitting Motif: Traditional Russian Design for Hat, Headband, and Cuffs with Stranded Colorwork

A motif from Komi Patterned Knitting

Several years ago, I sent a pattern correction to a publisher. Two days later, they emailed me to offer me a choice of books from their list! I chose Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens, a book about the traditional knitting of the Komi people of Russia. When the Camden Conference selected "Russia Resurgent" as the 2015 topic, I suggested to one of the organizers of our community events that I offer a workshop on this knitting style. I picked one motif from Komi Patterned Knitting (Uzornoe vazanie Komi/by Galina Nikolaevna Klimova and charted it. Then I excerpted sections of the chart to include in a hat, a headband, and cuffs. The cuffs can be used as a test swatch for knitting colorwork in the round. One of the benefits of the headband is that it's quite quick knitting. There's no shaping, just ribbing and a section of stranded knitting in the round. The hat is a little more complicated as the crown is shaped with decreases. The hat is cast on at the cuff and worked in the round from cuff to crown. Two colors are used, a third for contrast is optional. The headband and cuffs are also worked in the round, beginning and ending with ribbing.

Komi-patterned Hat

Sample knit in Harrisville Designs Highland. Main color 44 white Contrast color 1, Foliage (yellow) Contrast color 2, 7 Tundra (green)

Skills Required

- Knit & purl, cast on & bind off - increasing, decreasing - Working in the round on circular or double point needles. or - Working small circumferences in the round on DPNs/with magic loop/with two circulars - Working from charts - Stranded colorwork in the round

Yarn

Harrisville Designs Highland (100% wool, worsted weight. 200 yards/100 gram skein) MC #44, White: approximately 30 grams CC1 Foliage: approximately 20 grams CC2 #7, Tundra: approximately 30 grams Any worsted weight yarn in the range of 200-230 yards per 100 grams will work. See notes for adjusting for gauge.

Needles

4mm/US 6 needles (or size to achieve gauge) for working in the round: DPNs, 1 long circular or 2 short circulars. One 16" circular may be used until the crown decreases.

Notions

. locking stitch markers. You can use yarn loops or commercial marker

Gauge

4.5 stitches per inch, in the round, in stranded knitting using US size 6/4 mm needles. 6 rows per inch, in the round, in stranded knitting.

Size

One size fits most adults

Finished Measurements

Circumference: 21 inches At 4.5 stitches per inch: 21 At 5 stitches per inch: 19.5 Height from cuff to beginning of crown shaping: 6.25 inches. Note: height can be reduced by eliminating one or more of the small border patterns. Height can be increased by adding additional plain rows or additional ribbing.

Abbreviations

- K: knit - P: purl - Inc: increase. I prefer the backwards loop increase, shown at www.knittinghelp.com as Make 1 away. - K2tog - knit 2 together. This is a right leaning decrease.You may substitute a left leaning decrease if you prefer. The slant is not significant for this pattern. - CDD - centered double decrease. Slip 2 together as if they are one stitch, knit 1, pass both slipped stitches over the knit stitch. - Cast on: Latvian/Estonian Open Closed cast on. Tutorial at Helen Griffin's blog. It is listed under Cast ons worked in Ribbing. - Bind off: Joyce Williams' sewn Latvian Cast off, from Latvian Dreams. Tutorial at Helen Griffin's website.

Resources

Increases: http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/increases Cast on: https://sites.google.com/site/oftroysgoldenapples/home/tutorials/castOns#Double Bind off: https://sites.google.com/site/oftroysgoldenapples/home/tutorials/cast-ons/ basic-bind-off-s#sewn Color dominance: Beth Brown-Reinsel's blog, Knitting Traditions, http:// www.knittingtraditions.com/uncategorized/2010/03/yarn-dominance/ Two handed stranded knitting: https://www.philosopherswool.com/Pages/ Twohandedvideo.htm I don't trap every stitch as demonstrated here.

Pattern Notes

Color dominance

In two color knitting, one strand will appear on the back to be below the other strand. The strand that lies below will appear slightly more dominant on the face of the fabric. Usually, the strand that is held furthest to the left will be dominant. See Beth BrownReinsel's blog, Knitting Traditions, http://www.knittingtraditions.com/uncategorized/ 2010/03/yarn-dominance/, for more discussion of this issue. For the most part, hold the background yarn to the right, the pattern yarn to the left Remember which you have held where.

Tips for adjusting size

Use larger or smaller needle. This will make a small change. Changing needle size more than one or two increments can change the feel of the fabric. Add or remove stitches from the edges of the chart. The full chart is 46 stitches. Each stitch added to one side of the motif will increase the hat by 2 stitches, just under 1/2 inch. It is easiest to keep the ribbing in multiples of 4 (88, 92, 96) and add extra stitches in the first round after the ribbing. It is easiest to add columns of a single color. Although this will interrupt the flow of the design around the hat, it will make its own pattern. To add an inch and a half, I added a column of CC, MC, CC at either side of chart B and repeated the ending column. This added 8 stitches to the chart. You can see this in chart D.

PATTERN INSTRUCTIONS

Cast on:

Using size US6/4mm needles and CC2 yarn, CO 88 stitches. I used the Latvian/Open Closed cast on demonstrated at Oftroy's blog, but you may use any fairly stretchy cast on you prefer. Join to work in round. Knit in k2, p2 ribbing for 1/2 to 1". Sample hat ribbing is 7/8 of an incl Increase round: Change to MC. (knit 11, make 1) repeat 8 times around. 96 stitches. Begin knitting stranded using MC and CC1. Knit chart A, either the light or the dark version. Sample hat uses the dark version, in MC and CC1. You will be able to fit 6 repeats of the chart around the hat. und of chart A, you need to decrease 4 stitches. (Knit 22, k2tog) 4 time Switch to CC2, break CC1. Knit Chart B. You will have 2 repeats of chart B around hat. On last round of chart, place 4 markers. It is easiest to place these markers in the stitch, not on the needles. Place markers in stitches 1, 24, 47 and 70. They mark the center stitch of each double decrease. Stop knitting one stitch before the end of the round on the last round before crown shaping. If you do the optional purl rounds, stop one stitch before the end of the second purl round. Shape crown: Optional: add two rounds of purl in CC1 or 2 to highlight edge of crown. Switch to chart C. Round 1: CDD: Insert the right needle into the first stitch of the round and the last stitch of the previous round and slip them as if they are one stitch. Knit 1, pass slipped stitches over. You are using the last stitch of the round, and the first two of the new round. Knit to one stitch before next marked stitch. CDD. Repeat 2 more times, for a total of 4 decreases. Round 2: Knit around, stopping one stitch short of the end of round. Repeat rounds 1 and 2, changing to two circulars, magic loop or double pointed needles when your hat gets too small for a single needle. When you have 12 stitches remaining, break yarn, draw through all stitches and secure yarn tail.

Finishing

Soak in water. I generally wash my knits in wool wash. Block. Put your two hands inside the hat and snap your hands apart a couple of times. This doesn't have to be gentle. You want to help the strands even out and settle into place. Pat into shape on a towel and leave to dry. Weave inends.

Sources

Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia, Charlene Schurch, 2009. Martingale. This is a republication of Mostly Mittens: Traditional Knitting Patterns from Russia's Komi People, 1998. y3opHoe BA3aHne koMn Uzonie Viazanie Komi (Komi Patterned Knitting), Galina Nikolaevna Klimova. 1978. I viewed images only. TeKCTHSbHblv opHaMeHT KoMN, Textili Ornament Komi (Komi Textile Ornament, Galina Nikokaevna Klimova. 1984. Images. Contact Information Designer name: Helen Darmara http://www.ravelry.com/designers/helen-darmara hcdarmara @roadrunner.com Version 1, 01/2015 Basic Pattern Template Kate Atherley, 2014

Tips on Chart Reading

· Charts show what your work looks like from the right (public) side · Read charts for knitting in the round from bottom right on all rounds Mask out the rows above your current row with a sticky note or magn · No stitch in the legend (usually shown as grey in the chart) means just that. There is no stitch in your knitting, so there is no symbol or color in the chart. It's a placeholder showing where stitches were decreased or will be added. · Look at the repeating pattern across the row. Often this will be something like 3,1,3,1. 3 MC, 1 CC. Or 3 CC, 1 MC. In one of the patterns for the headband, it's 3 CC, 2 MC, 1 CC, 2 MC. Alternating 3 and 1 groups, separated by 2 stitches of the background color. · Technitter has a very interesting technique to help analyze chart patterns. She calls it "charting the chart". Read about it here: http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/06/ charting-charts-new-way-to-keep-track.html