2013 Advent Calendar Scarf. Day 7

Hello:

Tonight my street had our annual Progressive Holiday Party.  We used to have 4 different courses, and went to 4 different houses during the party, but now we just have Appetizers at one house, then desserts at a second house.  Believe me, that is plenty of food.  It is really nice to get together like this once a year.  We have two new families on the street, and two new babies.  I had not met either of the new families.  So, this was especially fun. I brought a hat I am knitting to work on at the party as my Advent Calendar scarf is too complicated for social knitting.  I am afraid that I will fall behind tomorrow.  Eastside Stitchers is meeting at Panera in Redmond for some knitting in the morning.  Then I am going to tutor one of my English students for a few hours.  She has a paper to write, and we will work on it together.  After that, the Doc and I are going to another holiday party!  I have finished the section for Day 7, and the next spacer, but I am simply too tired to knit now that I am home from the neighborhood party.  Oh well, I will just do my best.

The Day 7 pattern had one new stitch

/ 5\   k5tog
This stitch has you knit 5 stitches together by "slipping 2 stitches as if to knit, then knitting 3 stitches together through the back loop, and finally passing the slipped stitches over."

The big question was about the slipped stitches.  Do you slip the 2 stitches TOGETHER as if to knit?  or do you slip them one at a time?

I started by slipping them together.  It looks like this:

insert the right needle into the first 2 stitches as if to knit

slip the 2 stitches onto the right needle.

Insert the right needle into the next 3 stitches through the backs

Knit those 3 stitches together and slip onto the right needle.

Insert the left needle into the 2 slipped stitches on the right needle.

Carefully pull those 2 stitches up and over the knit stitch.

After you YO twice (00) and knit the next stitch, this is what your stitch looks like:

After I had knit a bit over half of today's pattern, I decided to see what the stitch would look like if I was slipping the first two stitches individually.

Insert the right needle  into the 1st stitch on the left as if to knit and move that stitch to the right needle.

Slip the next stitch on the left needle as if to knit and place it on the right needle.

Insert the right needle into the back of the next three stitches,

and knit those 3 stitches together through the back loops.

Insert the left needle into the 2 slipped stitches

and, pull over the top of the knit stitch.

Here is what the stitch looks like:

It is tough to see a difference, but I like the 2nd method better.

I will admit that I started with the first method, then changed to the second later.    Here is what the day's pattern looked like:

And, here is the scarf so far:

Peace
f1bercat
shaping the planet with good neighbors