Jo Ann's Knitting Blog

Alsacian Scallops

One of the pleasures of my 1978 visit to Christchurch, New Zealand, was meeting Jean Double, an avid knitter who presented me with a handsome knitted scallop pattern for a dress. I liked the pattern so much that I isolated its basic unit and began experimenting with it. To define the pattern better, I added the gathering stitch, which is used in many nineteenth-century patterns. Several years later, when visiting the Alsacian Museum in Strasbourg, France, I saw (in a wonderful collection of knitted white cotton petticoats) a pattern very similar to my version of the original dress pattern. For this reason, I have dubbed the pattern Alsacian Scallops. I am sure it would make an elegant counterpane.

This is a relatively easy two-needle pattern. The only unusual part of the pattern is the gathering stitch, shown in the drawing below, which involves a simple wrapping on the purl side of a designated group of stitches.

Special Instructions:

As shown in the drawing at right, the purl wrap (P4 wrap) is worked as follows:

Purl 4 stitches, transfer from the right-hand needle to a double-pointed needle and hold apart from the two knitting needles. Wrap the knitting yarn around the 4 stitches counterclockwise (covering the purl surface first). Make 3 complete wraps. Return stitches to right needle and continue with the row.

The pattern is worked on a multiple of 21 plus 3 stitches. The instructions in the brackets should be repeated once for each 21 stitches. The sample is worked on 68 stitches: 3 repeats plus 3 stitches, plus 1 stitch on each side for a garter-stitch border. The border stitches are not included in the directions.

Cast on.

Row 1 and 3: Knit. Row 2 (front): Purl. Row 4; Kl, [O, K21], K2. Row S: P2, [(PI, K3)5x, P2], PI. Ron 6: Kl, (Kl, O, Kl, (P3, Kl)5x, O], K2.

Row & Kl, [(Kl, 0)2x, (RLD, P2)5x, (Kl, OI2x], K2. Row 9: P2, [P4, (K2, Pl)5x, P4J, PI.

Row 10: Kl, [(Kl, 0)4x, (RLD, Pl)5x, (Kl, 0)4x], K2.

Repeat rows 1-14 for desired length.