No, he hasn't been on in a while. I PMed him with questions last year and he never responded, but I eventually figured it out.

To do this:

• slip the first stitch
• knit the second stitch
• pull the loop you just made by knitting through the first stitch

It's the same technique as binding off for one stitch, but in the middle of the work. It isn't a necessity, because I didn't do it and my slings work fine.

peacefuljeffrey wrote on Aug 11^th, 2010 at 1:12pm:

It's a way of decreasing. The easy technique for decreasing is to stick your right needle through the first two loops on your left needle and knit one stitch through them both. When using seine twine I think Matthias's method is actually easier to do, though.

Edited:

Both methods of decrease can be used on both sides for a symetrical pouch, but it looks more neat with each method on one side.

When you cast on only cast on 3 stitches. Do not turn your work over; when you would normally turn the work over and start purling you should instead slide the knitting to the other end of the needle and keep knitting. This only works on double point needles or circular needles. Knitting a small diameter tube like this is called I-Cord knitting. Before you try this try making a hat to wrap your head around the differences between flat knitting and circular knitting.

Masiakasaurus wrote on Aug 11^th, 2010 at 1:30pm:


I believe that I now understand what is going on, as far as making the shape of the pouch symmetrical by doing, for example, a decrease at the start of and at the end of a row (or an increase at each end, depending).

Are you also saying that you use one kind of decrease at the start, and a different kind at the end?  If that's what you mean, does that not make it look odd?

I checked in to look up these instructions for my first replacement sling in quite some time and find it on the front page! First sling is quite the honour evoli. Nylon takes dye quite well - anything from grocery-store RIT to onion peels should work.

Thanks to Masiakasaurus for carrying the thread and posting some great clarifications! I don't have anything really to add, but I did take photos of the new replacement while I was working on it. I only have white bonded twine with me, which I don't like for this sling quite so much as the tar, but it does photograph much better. Pictures worth 1000 etc?

The sling is #18 bonded 3-strand nylon twine, 36" (inseam/outstretched arm-chin) from pouch to release. It is made exactly to pattern with two extra knit rows in the straight section of pouch.




A bunch of suggestions have ben posted for casting on, and they all will work. The truth is that with only three stitches it's pretty irrelevant - completely so if like me you unravel a row or two before joining for the fingerloop. The cast-on that I used was simply looped.



I-cord hollow tube on the needle. As deduced it's the same result as spool knitting, and you could substitute a spool and swap to needles for the pouch if you wanted, so long as it was sized to give you the tightness of cord you want.



The fingerloop. On the needles the I-cord is "unrolled" toward the back side. I placed the two "insides" face-to-face and knitted the stitches in pairs.



The initial taper. The first couple of rows in the pouch are maybe the only thing with this design where I see room for improvement. It's a high wear area, and could use a little more reinforcing, not that my previous slings show any sign of failure. I think maybe the I cord could be flared for the first art of the pouch so that the transition is doubled. This sling was a replacement - next one can be for experimenting.



The increases: the whole "symmetric" discussion comes down to making the stitches look the same on both sides. These increases are twisted yarn-overs, and the direction of increase is decided by which direction the stitches are turned. Masiaka correctly identified that with this gauge and twine I pretty much take the increase and decrease stitches off the needle and manipulate them individually, so it's pretty easy to just flip the stitch the direction you want before continuing. It really doesn't matter much whether they slant in or out, but it does look good with mirror-image stitches.



Decreases. Which way they slant is decided by which stitch is on top. Knit the bottom one first, then work the top one over. The top stitch can be slid over, transferred to a third needle, or even just left hanging with seine twine while it's waiting. There's only a handfull - take your time.



The chain edge. This forms a strong, symmetric edge that curls the right direction. It's a result of slipping the first stitch (needle goes in as if you were going to purl it) and knitting the last stitch of every row.



Release cord diamond knot and tassle. To tie the knot I stretched the last three stitches out 4" or so, giving me three large loops and the tail end of the cord. The tail went through the neighbouring stitch then I added an 8" loose strand through the remaining two to that each knit stitch in the last row had one big loop and one single strand coming from it. Each bundle of three strands was treated as a single cord to tie the knot, being carefull to keep them tidy. The tassle is just the 9 stands (after cutting the loops) unravelled.



Two views of the pouch shaping.




Matthias

"I think maybe the I cord could be flared for the first art of the pouch so that the transition is doubled."

Would you mind elucidating this point? Thanks!
Not sure what you mean about "flaring" and "doubling."