The charm of the baby bib in Mason Dixon Knitting (oh what a book - oh what a web site www.masondixonknitting.com ) had me soonest getting out needles and yarn. I'd never knit a baby bib before! I'd certainly made bibs for my boys when they were babies and several memories were evoked - a white cloud bib with a yellow sun on the side, one with a scene trapunto'ed onto it, a chestnut-colored fluffy chest cover. But never a knit one! Hooray for a grandbaby and the motivation.
What resulted after much playing around with different cotton and needles and stitches was the following: (being unable to give an actual photograph at the moment, here is a word picture) a French-vanilla-ice- cream-colored bib, six inches wide, five inches deep, in a stockingette stitch with a border of garter stitch along each side... a curved neckline... an inch or so where the three-stitch border turns into a two-stitch tie in a flat I-cord. The bib is reversible: on the smooth vertical row side it looks more dressy than the other side where the bumpy horizontal rows are ready to deal with serious drips and drools.
The bib is versatile - it can be made wider or longer using more stitches or different size needles; the ties could be left thicker and made shorter with Velcro at the ends for fastening instead of tying.
Gauge on this one was 5 sts and 8 rows to two inches using a double strand of Danish cotton I found in my stash; the label looks old; the brand is Mayflower Helars-garn. The cotton was lovely and soft in its fibre state and knit up lovely and soft. I decided to double the yarn as it gave a nice weight bib but not stiff. The needles were an ivory warm plastic, #1 CDN and danced together well with the cotton.
Here is what I did:
Cast on 17 stitches in a symbiotic cast-on which is a simple knit cast-on but it seems so mutually productive that symbiotic comes to mind as I make a slip knot on the left hand needle, knit into it and then take the newly made loop on the right needle and put it chummily back on the left. Repeat the process (whatever you call it!) until there are 17 sts.
R 1 Sl first st Knit to end
R 2 Sl st Knit 2 Purl 11 K2 Knit in back of last st.
R 3 Sl st K 15 K in back of last stitch
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until desired length ending with a purled row
Next row (neck) Sl st K2 (these three stitches are the basis for the tie) K2 tog K2 tog Now pass the first K2 tog st over the second one K2 tog Pass the previous K2 tog st over this one and continue casting off in this way until there are 3 sts remaining on left hand needle K2 Knit into back of last st. (There will be the first 3 sts still on right hand needle and you can put these on a safety pin holder or just leave them on needle)
On these last three sts knit one row, purl one row, knit one row, purl one row (this is stockingette st, of course) to give a gradual change from bib to tie. Next row K2 tog K last stitch.
*On these two stitches continue the purl one row, knit one row until desired length of tie. K 2 tog Cut yarn, thread through last st, tug tightly and weave end into tie.
Put the other three stitches on left hand needle with smooth side facing, attach yarn, and knit another tie to correspond to first one.
You can back and forth knit from * as follows:
Back and Forth Knitting
Stockingette stitch:
Knit side facing
First row Knit
Second row ** Keeping needles in same position put the needle in left hand into back of the first st on right hand needle, take yarn (from its place at back of knitting) and put it over left hand needle from right to left and then back to right again, lift the yarn through to front with left hand needle and leave it on left hand needle, release loop from right hand needle. (It might be easier to think of this as lifting right hand needle over the newly made stitch on left hand needle.) Repeat from ** across row. It takes a lot longer to tell how to do it than to actually do it!
Once it becomes familiar it begins to make sense to not have to change position and alternate needles each row, just a nice rhythmic back and forth movement.
Third row Again do not change needle position, just knit back across row but into back of each stitch.
Continue row two and three until desired length.
You will see that you get a stockingette stitch doing this because you are making a purl stitch with the left hand needle as you knit from left to right.
You can garter stitch knit back and forth. Again knit the first row as usual. Then for second row bring yarn to front of work, insert left hand needle from back to front in first stitch and wrap yarn around this needle from right to left (between needles) lifting right hand needle over left hand needle. Continue across row. Knit back as usual with needle through front of stitch.
I made up another bib – this one in a navy cotton – it’s from a silkier cotton and the bib is more like a wipe and less like a shield. Have some lovely green hemp yarn and am thinking to make one with this – it would have to be washed a few times to get rid of the ‘rough’ quality but once it has been ‘softened’ it is a great texture and will last forever.