Knitting -- ripple throw with piped edging from leftovers

I haven't posted on this page in a long time because I was working on a project which I just finished.

A long time ago, when I was in high school, there was this craft thing where you had a wooden spool with a large hole down through it. At one end there were some thin nails, and you used a crochet hook to loop yarn around them and then sort of knit a long snake. 

Technically this is called an I-cord. You can use it for the edge of a coat; I used to have a coat pattern with this specific design.

Otherwise the only other thing you might do with an I-cord is make a piped edging for housewares, like a cushion cover. So let's do that.

I worked this project on straight needles because my circular needles already had projects on them. The leftovers were Comfy fingering and I used size 3 needles.

This being a throw, it was rectangular. I used Arne and Carlos' video to make the I-cord for the bottom edge, but I used 3 stitches not 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_lQU5QsdNs

I made an I-cord that was 312 stitches long. This gave me 306 stitches for the pattern and 3 stitches on each end for the side I-cords.

I used a crochet hook to pick up the Vs on the top of the I-cord to work the yarn into them, then I knitted the next row with I-cord stitches at each end.

ON RIGHTSIDE ROWS:  K1, yarn forward, slip purlwise, yarn back, K1. Work across in pattern, then K1, yarn forward, slip purlwise, yarn back, K1.

ON WRONGSIDE ROWS: slip 1 purlwise, yarn back, K1, yarn forward, slip purlwise. work across, and then yarn forward, slip purlwise, yarn back, knit, yarn forward and slip.

The pattern is an 18-stitch repeat. Work this between the 3-stitch edges. If you want to work it stand-alone, K1 at the edges on R3 and R4.

R1 & 2: Knit  

R3: *[(Knit 2 sts together) x 3, Knit in front and back of next stitch, (Yarn Over, K1) x 4, K in front and back of next stitch, (Knit 2 sts together) x 3], repeat * till last stitch.

R4: Purl to last stitch.

Work this until all your leftovers are gone -- or at least until there's not enough of the leftovers to do a full 4 row pattern. I used 4 sets of the pattern for white and 5 sets for all the other stripes. One skein of yarn made three sets of 5-pattern runs. I had one full skein of that dark pink and it made all three of those stripes.

When your leftovers are used up, add in the color for the top piping. I recommend working the same  number of repeats at the top as you did after starting the bottom I-cord.

For the top bind-off work another series of piping.

Put a DP needle into the three stitches of the edge piping and pick up the first stitch of the top row. Using another DP, K1, yarn forward, slip purlwise, yarn back, K2TOGTBL leaving the last stitch on the needle. Now pick up the loop in front of the next stitch and do this again. Pick up that same loop and K2 K2TOGTBL. This turns your corner.

Use one of your DPs to * pick up the next stitch of the top row, K2 K2TOGTBL leaving the last stitch on the needle * until all the top row stitches have been worked. Slip two stitches over to make an edge for the piping and work the end of the yarn into the wrong side. Notice that this will roll the I-cord just as on the bottom since you never turn the work over and purl.

If you want to work this in bulky, make a bottom I-cord 132 stitches long.

This I-cord piping makes another nice non-curling edge and, as you see, it follows the ripple in the pattern.