Basketweave Knitting Stitch

Before my daughter was born, I used to knit more frequently.  Mainly scarves and baby blankets for friends.  My daughter is now 12 and it's been about that long since I last knit.  For the last month, I have been trying to reteach myself with the help of a knitting book and some youtube videos.  After casting on, knitting has been a little like riding a bike.  My fingers just knew what to do.

I had to spend quite a bit of time working on making that first stitch and casting on. This was one of the videos I watched to help myself remember.  I made a few small scarves for stuffed animals as practice.



After practicing casting on, binding off, and combining different stitches by making a blanket for a Littlest Pet Shop and three scarves for Build-a-Bears I decided to work on more advanced stitches.

This is where the basketweave stitch comes in.  You can see part of my project above.  I had some leftover pink yarn that I used and it turned out great. 

To create a Basketweave:
Cast on 43 Stitches.
Row 1: Purl
Row 2: k3, *p5, k3; repeat after *
Row 3: p3, *k5, p3; repeat after *
Row 4: repeat Row 2
Row 5: Purl
Row 6: p4, *k3, p5; repeat after * but end last repeat p4
Row 7: k4, *p3, k5; repeat after * but end last repeat k4
Row 8: repeat Row 6

Repeat rows 1 through 8 (as many times as you want.  If you repeat the rows 7 times you will have a square piece.  You could repeat more for a scarf)
Knit row 1 - 4 and bind off on the Purl row, purling all stitches as you bind off.