1 Stitch “Garterlac” Cast On…

I am a dishclothaholic… I love to knit them and have my “go to” knits… Grandma’s Favorite, Almost Lost (well, my variation of it, but I’ll save that for another time) and the Garterlac, also referred to by those who are addicted to knitting them as “Gartercrack” dishcloths. I’ve been knitting them for 5 years and they truly are so much fun to knit! I had heard about the 1 stitch cast on for the Garterlac that Tinker Tots had posted about and decided to give it a try as it really does make all of the edges look the same especially when using variegated yarns….

This picture shows the original cast on edge for the Base Triangles – and as you can plainly see, the cast on edge sticks out like a sore thumb with this variegated yarn…

This picture shows the 1 stitch cast on edge for the Base Triangles – it all blends in and all four edges of the finished cloth will look the same.  LOVE IT!

Which brings me to the meat of this post…  I sat down with my needles, cotton and Tinker Tots’ directions (she’s a genius!) and made the three base triangles and ended up with one triangle on one needle and two triangles on the other, so I ripped it out and did it again with the same results… then I did it again… guess what?  Same results 😦  After Googling, YouTube searching and going through hundreds and hundreds of the Ravelry projects, I messaged Laura (Tinker Tots) and asked her what I was doing wrong. She VERY kindly gave me some more information and off I went and did it again – with the same results – I seriously couldn’t wrap my head around what I was doing wrong!  The difference this time was that my very thick brain kicked into gear and it finally clicked….  I did, however, make a couple of very small changes to the original directions to make it clearer for me.  So to help any of you that are interested in this womderful method (thank you Laura!) and this fabulously addictive pattern (thank you Criminy Jickets!)  I have put together a pictorial of the base triangles to go along with the directions, as well as pictures of what the next row will look like as you work it.

Laura’s Directions are as follows for the 1st Base Triangle…

Increasing Base Triangle

Cast On one stitch

K 1, turn, K-FB, turn.
K 2, turn, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 3, turn, K 1, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 4, turn, K 2, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 5, turn, K 3, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 6, turn, K 4, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 7, turn, K 5, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 8, turn,
K 6, K-FB, K 1, return last stitch to your other needle and treat as first stitch of the next triangle

This is what I did for the 2nd base triangle…

With work oriented as in the picture above and working into the single stitch…

K-FB, turn.
K 2, turn, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 3, turn, K 1, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 4, turn, K 2, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 5, turn, K 3, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 6, turn, K 4, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 7, turn, K 5, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 8, turn,
K 6, K-FB, K 1, return last stitch to your other needle and treat as first stitch of the next triangle

Now let’s work the 3rd Base Triangle…

With work oriented as in the picture above and working into the single stitch…

K-FB,turn.
K 2, turn, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 3, turn, K 1, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 4, turn, K 2, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 5, turn, K 3, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 6, turn, K 4, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 7, turn, K 5, K-FB, K 1, turn.
K 8, turn.
Knit 8

Your Triangle Base Row should look like this…

Now follow Criminy Jickets Garterlac Directions and make an Increasing Side Triangle – your work will now look like this…

Now make your first Square – it will look like this….

Now make your second Square – which will look like this… It’s like MAGIC! 🙂

Now for the Decreasing Side Triangle to finish off this row…

Follow the pattern and finish your cloth 🙂

Love it, Love it, Love it!  Hope this helps anyone that can be as thick as I am sometimes. 🙂   Happy Knitting!