Black Horse Knit Soaker

Size 5 US needles and worsted weight yarn or whatever you need to get gauge of 21 stitches and 30 rows over 4 inches. I knit tightly...

Using a circular needle or double pointed needles: Cast on 90 for medium [70 for small, 110 for large]

Waist Ribbing

Join the ends and k1, p1, repeating to end of round. Continue k1, p1 ribbing until you've finished 20 rounds (you may want to do 30 for a large soaker).

Hips

Knit for 40 [30, 40] rounds.

Bottom and Crotch

If you want to weave the ends together — bind off 40 [30, 50] stitches then knit to end of row.

If you want to graft them together — bind off 10 [5, 10] stitches, k20 [20, 30], bind off 10 [5, 10], knit to end of row and move the separated 20 stitches to a stitch holder.

Work the remaining 50 [40, 60] stitches as if on single pointed needles (you can switch to them if you want but I prefer to use circular for everything):

Slip first stitch knitwise, k2tog, knit to end of row, turn. Slip first stitch purlwise, p2tog, purl to end of row.

Repeat the previous two rows until you have 20 [20, 30] stitches on the needle (about 30 [20, 30] rows).

To continue with the crotch: Slip first stitch knitwise then knit to end of row, turn. Slip first stitch purlwise then purl to end of row.

Repeat the previous two rows until you've finished 50 [40, 60] rows.

You can weave or graft this end to the front of the soaker before or after you knit the ribbing for the legs.

Leg Ribbing

Using single pointed needles if you wait to connect the crotch or double pointed needles if you've already done it:

Pick up an even number of stitches at 5 stitches per inch around the legs knit one full row. k1, p1, repeat this to the end of row. Repeat the previous row 29 more times then bind off loosely.

If you haven't joined the two ends at the crotch, do so now and weave the ends of the leg ribbing together, too!

You are welcome to distribute this pattern and use the ideas included and gift or sell whatever you make from it. But if you distribute it, please do so as a whole, with attribution and this info included. Thanks!

Creative Commons License This work by Suzanne Lander is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.