We don’t see so much of the wheatear stitch, so when we came across it flicking through an old book, we just had to bring it to light. We tried it out right away and chose our Sierra yarn in the colour Cherry to make it.

Sierra, is a really warm and soft Alpaca yarn and just a little furry, leaving the pattern nice and smooth and prominent. Therefore really suitable for a stitch such as this one.

How to knit the wheatear stitch

MATERIALS
Sierra yarn col. Cherry 100 g / 3.5 oz
Knitting needle n° 8 EU / 11 US

DIFFICULTY LEVEL
Intermediate

METHOD
Here are the instructions on how to knit your Wheatear stitch.

It’s done on a multiple of 10 stitches + 1.

Row 1: (on the wrong side of the work) *purl 1, knit 2, purl 5, knit*2. Always repeat from * to * and finish off with a purl
row 2 – 4 – 6 – 8 – 10: cross stitch 1, *purl 2, right cross 2, knit 1, left cross 2, purl 2, 1 cross stitch*.
To do the 2 right cross stitches  leave 1 stitch hanging behind, knit 1, knit the hanging stitch.
To do the 2 left cross stitches leave 1 stitch hanging at the front, knit 1, knit the hanging stitch.
Row 11: *purl 3, knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 2, * and finish off with a purl
row 12 – 14 – 16 – 18 – 20: knit 1, *2 left cross stitches, purl 2, 1 cross stitch, purl 2, 2 right cross stitches, knit 1*
row 21: repeat from row 1.

Begin at the stitch that precedes the first *, repeat from * to * for the entire line.

In the odd rows, not displayed in the chart, knit all the stitches as they appear, knit on knit, purl on purl, purl the stitches that appear with crossed purl, knit row 1 and row 11 as displayed in the chart.

Tadaaaa! Here’s the Wheatear stitch. It’s so addictive, once you start you’ll do it over and over again!

If you haven’t had enough yet, we recommend checking out the mussolini stitch also known as the mock fisherman’s rib stitch.