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I'm looking to add vertical train tracks going up one side of a stockinette/knit square, all the same colour. I was wondering if someone more experience might be able to help me figure out how to knit it? Something like this:

example of "train tracks" stitch

Just one set of train tracks.

It would be okay if the design were flatter (so long as it still showed up differently texture-wise or a bit raised), and I'm not crazy about 'purls', garter stitches aren't my favourite either lookwise but they'd work (look ok in example). I like seed and stockinette/knit stitches. I'm brand new to knitting so something not too difficult would be appreciated.

@whrrgarbl - I'm looking to rotate the pattern so it will be knit vertically up one side of a stockinette square, and just one set of train tracks (2 stitches going up the sides and horizontal lines between them, textured differently and/or raised so as to differentiate them from the rest of the square). I'm looking to see if I can find a pattern for just a plain square of the size I'm looking for, so hopefully I could be better helped

Kitty
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Kitty
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    @Kitty you've now got two accounts -- use the Contact Us link at the bottom to ask for them to be merged. – Erica Apr 10 '18 at 01:51

1 Answers1

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In the photo example, the "train tracks" are actually created horizontally - an easy way to tell is by the direction of the V made by the knit stitches. The rightmost edge of the item in the image would have been the cast-off edge.

As a starting point, I'll go through the existing pattern. It appears to start with:

  1. Cast on an odd number of stitches
  2. Rows 1-8: garter stitch

This makes the end border. The odd number is so that when you get to the body, it will be symmetrical on both ends.

The gap between the "tracks" is a garter stitch border on the edges, with stockinette in between. Keep in mind that here the odd-numbered rows will be on the right side:

  1. Row 9: k across
  2. Row 10: k 5, p until 5 sts from end, k 5
  3. Row 11: k across

Next you make the "rail" of the tracks:

  1. Row 12: k across

Next are the tracks. Continue the garter stitch border, but with ribbing in between:

  1. Row 13: k5, k1, *p1, k1* repeat between * until 5 stitches from end, k5
  2. Row 14: k5, p1, *k1, p1* repeat between * until 5 stitches from end, k5
  3. Rows 15, 16, 17: repeat row 13, 14, and 13 again.

Then your second rail:

  1. Row 18: k across

The original pattern just repeats the tracks (steps 3-10) a number of times, then adds another gap (3-5) and end border (2) before casting off.

To create a single "track" in a plain stockinette square, you just need steps 6-10, omitting the 5 stitch border on either end of the row. Make sure you start the track pattern on the wrong side (WS), so the first row (k across) will become a purl row on the right side.

So the pattern would become:

  1. Cast on an odd number of stitches
  2. Knit an even number of rows in stockinette
  3. (WS) k across
  4. k1, *p1, k1* until end
  5. (WS) p1, *k1, p1* until end
  6. k1, *p1, k1* until end
  7. (WS) p1, *k1, p1* until end
  8. k1, *p1, k1* until end
  9. (WS) k across
  10. Continue in stockinette stitch

Or if you want to start on the right (knit) side of the stockinette, you can swap the k's and p's above for the same result.

In case you want to knit it purely vertically, you could rotate the k's and p's by 90 degrees - but this will likely skew the result since stitches are not perfectly square. Typically row height is shorter than stitch width, but you can check your gauge to be sure. If that's the case, you would want to add extra space between the rails, like so:

  1. stockinette, p1, k5, p1, stockinette
  2. stockinette, k1, p5, k1, stockinette
  3. stockinette, p1, k5, p1, stockinette
  4. stockinette, k7, stockinette
  5. Repeat rows 1-4 until tracks are desired length
  6. Repeat rows 1-3 for symmetry

To give you a visual, using 0 for knit and . for purl, this would result in something like:

000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.......000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.......000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.......000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
000000000000000.00000.000000000000000
user812786
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