Knitting Skill - I cord

SKILL CORRAL

I-cord and friends

by Kathleen Buckley

Welcome to the Skill Corral, a place to round up skills and ideas for use in your projects.  Everybody could use more tools in their knitting toolbox.  Knowledge is power, and ideas!  What can you do with your new idea? 

Today’s skill is I-cord, also known as Idiot cord.  I am not sure where it got the name.  Might it refer to its ease of execution (even an idiot could do it)? The I-cord has been used extensively to form a long cord that go from one mitten to the other mitten through the sleeves and across the back of a small tot’s jacket.  Does this mean that the child is an idiot in perpetual danger of losing their mittens?  Surely not.  I would never call a child an idiot, unless it was my own child, of course, and they did something idiotic.  Were I to rename I-cord, I’d consider calling it Kindergarten cord, or K-cord.  A bit gentler towards the children.  Carelessly or accidentally losing your mittens or gloves in sub-freezing temperatures has its own consequence with the discomfort of freezing fingers until you get home.  No need for name-calling of “idiot” on top of that. 

Adults use this I-cord concept, too.  Mushers and dog team drivers in the far North have large-bore forms of mitten strings that go on OVER the parka, keeping the large mitts (commonly made of hide) from ending up at the side of the trail.  When not driving, they use the long lengths of their large I-cord type harness contraption to secure the large hide mitts behind their backs.  Losing one of these, you won’t get just cold fingers; you’ll lose them altogether to frostbite.  A much more serious scenario.

Basic I-Cord

The late Elizabeth Zimmermann taught and illustrated I-cord in her book, Knitters Almanac.  Many other writers have also written and illustrated I-cord, and then there is YouTube.  Nicky Epstein, in her books, has used I-cord in delightfully imaginative ways as decorative elements.  Look up I-cord and see what you find. 

Here is how you do it: 

Cast on 3 (or 4 if preferred) stitches onto a double-pointed needle.  You will NEED dpns for this.  You could use circular needle, I suppose, what’s required is a point at both ends.  A regular straight needle won’t work.

Row 1: Knit across.

Do Not Turn.  Keeping working yarn in the back, slide stitches on left hand dpn back up towards the point.  Pull yarn firmly back to the first stitch; knit all sts.   Repeat from * to *.

That’s it.

For all the knitted square samples, SLIPS ARE ALWAYS PURLWISE and YARN IS ALWAYS IN FRONT

I-Cord as the edge of knitted anything.    Andrea Mowery, in her pattern The Shift, uses this edge for this cowl.  Work this over 2-row repeat:

Row 1: First 3 stitches, slip them all with yarn in front, then knit in pattern across, if you want the same edge on the other side, the last 3 sts you slip all 3 WYIF (with yarn in front).

Row 2:  Knit first 3 sts, work in pattern, knit last 3 sts.

After a couple of rows, you see the edge forming a tidy little “tube” at the edge of the knitting.

Sample 2 is a double-moss stitch for the pattern with the I-cord edge on both sides.  I think this might make a great dishcloth knitted out of kitchen cotton on smaller needles.  Double moss stitch is a repeat of 4 stitches, and you need 6 extra for the 3 stitches on each side for the I-cord edge.  Double moss row repeat is 4 rows.

The sample as shown is knitted on 18 stitches on #6 needles with worsted 2-ply (Mountain Meadow Wool’s Laramie 2-ply worsted).  The sample as written works on any number of stitches that is a multiple of 4, plus 6:

Cast on 18 sts, or any multiple of 4 plus 6:

Row 1 (WS): SL 3 WYIF, *K2, P2* to last 3 sts, SL 3 WYIF.

Row 2 (RS): K3, *K2, P2* to last 3 sts, K3.

Row 3 (WS): SL 3 WYIF, *P2, K2* to last 3 sts, SL 3 WYIF.

Row 4 (RS): K3, *P2, K2* to last 3 sts, K3.

The third sample is an I-cord-like edge on a garter stitch middle.  This edge was used in the pattern Lady Sunnyside by Tanis Lavallee for a button band on the edge of this sweater, cleverly avoiding the need for a button band after the fact.  It uses a combination of knit and slipped stitches, alternating on odd rows, and the effect is very like I-cord.  In the written instructions for the sample, I used markers at the edge to help define them from the middle, until you get the hang of it.  This edge also is worked over 2 rows.

Sample 3 Garter Stitch square with slipped stitch edge:

You can cast on 18 for a practice piece:

Here is the long, wordy version of how you do it:

RS: K1, yarn to front, SL1 WYIF, yarn to back, K1, (there’s your edge!), pm, K across to last 3 sts, pm, K1, yarn to front, SL1 WYIF, yarn back, K1.

WS: with yarn in front, SL1, yarn back, K1, yarn front, SL1 WYIF, sm, K to within 3 sts, yarn to front, SL1 WYIF, yarn back, K1.

I wrote it this way so it serves as a guide as to where you put your yarn before the subsequent stitch.  Once you get the hang of making sure your yarn is in front before you slip, and then in back for the next knit stitch, it’s a breeze, and you can modify it to the NUTSHELL VERSION, which I use to talk myself through the edges:

RS: K, S, K, sm, knit across to last 3, K, S, K.

WS: S, K, S, sm, K across to last 3, S, K, S.

This edge is my personal favorite.

Abbreviations:

RS          right side

WS        wrong side

pm        place marker

sm         slip marker

K             knit

P             purl

WYIF    with yarn in front

SL          slip

S             slip