Ruana

Overview

The ruana is knit in the round in Stockinette downwards from the neck. This makes it trivial to control the size of the Ruana – you simply switch to adding borders once you reach the desired size.

The body of the ruana is divided in four sides (right, front, left, back) separated by small 2-stitch columns.

8 stitches are added every 2nd row: each side grows by 1 at the beginning and 1 at the end.

Inputs

Instructions

Compute initial size

Measure the desired neck circumference in stitches (in mistake rib) taking the desired negative ease into account. The number of stitches must be a multiple of 4.

Reserve 8 stitches for the separators and allocate the remaining stitches in two sections depending on the desired ratio of the ruana:

In my case, I knit 56 stitches and allocated them thus:

How you allocate them doesn’t matter much: the ruana will grow so much, that differences here are unlikely to be noticeable.

Cast on and neck

Cast on your desired number of stitches on DPNs and knit in mistake rib until the desired neck length is reached.

Body

Start the body of the ruana, inserting a stitch markers after each of the 4 sides (before the separators).

Alternate these rows:

  1. Even row: K the entire row (slipping markers).
  2. Odd row: grows by 8 stitches:
    • For each of the 4 sides: M1R, K to marker, M1L, slip market
    • For each of the 4 separators: K2

Color lines

Add special lines with the secondary color:

  1. Secondary color: K entire row
  2. Secondary color: P right, front, left sides; K back side.
  3. Primary color: Twice: K entire row.
  4. secondary color: Thrice: K entire row.
  5. Repeat step 3.
  6. Repeat steps 1 and 2.

Borders

Knit nine rows in seed stitch (continuing the increases on every 2nd row). The weight of the borders neutralizes the tendency of Stockinette stitch to roll in.

Bind-off

Once the desired size is reached:

At this point you’ll be left with the live stitches for the front and back sides.

Fringes

Add fringes in the secondary color to the back and in the primary color to the front and weave in the ends.