Easy Knit Tie

I have been wanting to try to knit a tie for a while now and with Father's Day coming up (it was when I started) I decided to give it a go.  It's pretty easy to make and soft to wear!

Step 1: Supplies

All you really need for this project is yarn and a knitting needle, but I will tell you everything I used.

Supplies:

• Yarn (color and design of your choice)
• Size 9 Knitting Needle
• Measuring Tape
• Yarn Needle
• Paper Clips
• Tape
• Pen
• Real Tie (for reference)

Step 2: Knitting

This tie only involves knowing how to Knit, Knit 2 Together (k2tog), and Knit Front and Back (k# f&b).  Just in case I am confusing, I will put in parenthesis how many stitches you should have at the end of a row.

Directions:

1. c/o 1 (1)
2. k1 f&b (2)
3. k2 f&b (4)
4. k1 f&b, k2, k1 f&b (6)
5. k1 f&b k to end (7)
6. k1 f&b k to end (8)
7. k1 f&b k to end (9)
8. k1 f&b k to end (10)
9. k1 f&b k to end (11)
10. k1 f&b k to end (12)
11. k1 f&b k to end (13)
12. k1 f&b k to end (14)
13. k1 f&b k to end (15)
14. k1 f&b k to end (16)

Step 3: Continuing the Tie

Now you just have a lot of knitting to do.  I kept track of how many rows I did, but you can also measure.  It is a lot of rows, so I would suggest measuring.  It is very helpful to just lay it on top of another tie to see how you are doing.

Before I went about knitting the rest of my tie.  I decided to find out where and how much the tie decreased.  

I found out the tie I was using as a guide was, at it's widest, 9.5 cm across.  (This is where you should be right now after all of your knitting 2 together.)  My tie decreased to 4 cm at it's slimmest.  Af first I was going to decrease a stitch at each centimeter decrease, but then found I would only get down to (pretending the tie was 10 cm at it's widest) 10 stitches which is way to wide for the skinny part of the tie.   So I decided to decrease every half centimeter.  In this case, I would decrease down to 5 stitches.  I used tape to mark where on the tie the width decreased.

Now to knit again:

1. knit 61 rows of 16 stitches.  Until you are about 20.5 cm (8 inches) from the tip of the tie.
2. k7, k2tog, k7 (15)
3. knit 16 rows of 15 stitches.  Until you are about 25.5 cm(10 inches) from the tip of the tie.
4. k6, k2tog, k7 (14)
5. knit 24 rows of 14 stitches.  Until you are about 32 cm (12.5 inches) from the tip of the tie.
6. k6, k2tog, k6 (13)
7. knit 22 rows of 13 stitches.  Until you are about 38 cm (15 inches) from the tip of the tie.
8. k5, k2tog, k6 (12)
9. knit 15 rows of 12 stitches.  Until you are about 42 cm (16.5 inches) from the tip of the tie.
10. k5, k2tog, k5 (11)
11. knit 10 rows of 11 stitches.  Until you are about 44.5 cm (17.5 inches) from the tip of the tie.
12. k4, k2tog, k5 (10)
13. knit 10 rows of 10 stitches.  Until you are about 46.5 cm (18.5 inches) from the tip of the tie.
14. k4, k2tog, k4 (9)
15. knit 3 rows of 9 stitches.  Until you are about 48 cm (19 inches) from the tip of the tie.
16. k3, k2tog, k4 (8)
17. knit 7 rows of 8 stitches.  Until you are about 50 cm (19.75 inches) from the tip of the tie.
18. k3, k2tog, k3 (7)
19. knit 6 rows of 7 stitches.  Until you are about 52 cm (20.5 inches) from the tip of the tie.
20. k2, k2tog, k3 (6)
21. knit 7 rows of 6 stitches.  Until you are about 56.5 (22.24 inches) from the tip of the tie.
22. k2, k2tog, k2 (5)
23. knit 365 rows of 5 stitches.  Until you are about 155 cm (60 inches) from the tip of the tie.
24. k2tog, k3
25. k2tog, k2
26. k2tog, k1
27. k2tog and bind off

I found after I was almost done, that it helped to paperclip the knit tie to the real tie, after I had started knitting the rows of 5, so you know when you are done.  Much easier than counting rows or measuring every once in a while to see how far I was from being done.

*Note: cm and inche measurements may not match up because I just measured in cm and then flipped the measuring tape over to see the inches number.  But these are just approximate anyway.

Step 4: Your Done

Now you just need to wear your tie!

I know only one way to tie a tie, Four in Hand Knot.  But you can find other ways here.

Enjoy your stylish tie!