My interest in knitting has been kept alive over the years by the almost infinite variety of color, pattern, and texture that is found in collections of knitters and museums around the world. Although I love the smooth, quiet repetition of knitting a rectangular scarf in garter stitch using a luxurious yarn, it is the endless diversity of technique and style that keeps me interested in knitting as more than a way to keep my hands busy while watching TV.

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
--from The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

On both socks and sweaters, these designs are made up of twisted knit stitches forming vertical panels on a background of purls. Made from light-weight yarn, the fabric is densely packed with high-relief textured stitches that draw the material in like ribbing. This feature makes it easy to create a body-hugging sweater, but difficult to measure gauge. Because the fabric is quite stretchy, it is easy to distort when wet.

Many sweaters from Austria and Bavaria were knitted back and forth in pieces, and sewn together in the style of jackets made from woven fabric.  Snug at the waist, with a low scooped neckline, these form-fitting sweaters were often worn with dirndl skirts in the regional style. Men and women also wore fitted vests, or waistcoats, made with similar pattern stitches. 

Traditional designs featured twisted stitch panels on either side of the front opening of a vest or cardigan and a central panel on the back. The sides and sleeves were often decorated with simpler knit and purl patterns to make shaping easier. Today, sweaters with Bavarian twisted traveling stitches are made in many different styles, but the classic fitted cardigan — covered completely with ornate panels of lattices, zigzags, and diamonds, and braids — is most common.

Bavarian socks were made in two styles. Knee socks were made with columns of pattern stitches encircling the entire leg, and a special increase section at the center back for calf shaping. The second popular style was knit in stockinette stitch or ribbing with triangular panel of pattern stitches on each side of the leg, with gusset increases, worked in a simple texture stitch,  in the center.

Here's How
Charts for twisted traveling stitches in American, or English-language, books treat the twists as small cables and use the same symbols for these stitches as they do for cable charts. In the German-language books I have for twisted traveling stitches, the charts are made without a grid and with letters or numbers standing for the basic stitches.

For example:
In Bäuerliches Striken, a twisted knit is V, and a purl is ~
In Überlieferte Strickmuster aus dem Steirischen Ennstal, a twisted knit is 8, and a purl is -

In both book series, the movement of the stitches is indicated by diagonal lines. In the former, the diagonal lines are red and in the latter, they have small arrowheads. The arrow indicating the direction of the motion is shown between the chart rows, beneath the stitch(es) that are moving on the surface of the knitting. Rather than focusing on the action to be performed -- such as "put 1 stitch on a cable needle and hold it to the back" -- these charts focus on the motion of the stitches -- such as "move the third stitch in the row to the left over the fourth stitch" or "move the eight stitch in the row to the right over the seventh stitch." Although that sounds clunky when converted to words, these charts are not meant to be read verbally. The process of knitting from these charts is very visual and intuitive. Rather than following instructions that are often confusing -- it is very common for English-speaking knitters to accidentally twist cables the wrong way even when following charts -- the knitter is mean to "draw" a picture with the twisted stitches, and to focus on how the stitches move on the surface of the knitting to create diagonal lines that cross on top of other knits and purls in the background.

Take a look at the sample chart at right, and see if you can knit the pattern. Because we're knitting in the round, all rows are read from right to left. I've numbered them for your convenience, but the rows are not numbered in the German-language books.

Let's read through the first few rows together. Then cast on a swatch, and try to knit this without converting the symbols to words. Just by moving the stitches where you want them to go. You can do this either with or without a cable needle. But focus on the design you are making and not on the symbols or placement of the cable needle.

Row 1: K2tbl, p1, k2tbl, p1, k1tbl, p2, work the next 2 twisted stitches so the one on the left moves across the surface of the knitting over the one on the right, p2, k1tbl, p1

Row 2: K2tbl, p1, move the next 2 twisted stitches toward the left across the surface of the knitting over the purl stitch that follows them, *move the next 1 twisted stitch toward the left over the purl stitch that follows it, move the second stitch on the left needle to the right over the purl stitch that is before it, repeat from * once more -- do you see how you are creating two inverted V shapes in the knitting? -- purl the last stitch.

Row 3: K2tbl, p2, move the next 2 twisted stitches toward the left across the surface of the knitting over the purl stitch that follows them, *move the next 1 twisted stitch toward the left over the knit stitch that follows it but purl that stitch, p2, *move the next 1 twisted stitch toward the right over the knit stitch that comes before it but purl that stitch -- do you see how you are crossing the knits over each other at the top of the two inverted V shapes? -- purl the last 2 stitches.

Obviously, you can knit from these charts using a legend, just as you knit from English-language charts, but I think that adding the step of looking up each symbol and converting it into words before knitting it, makes the process more difficult and error prone. By internalizing the chart symbols and thinking of them as a drawing of what you are knitting, and by reading your knitting and looking at what you have completed and thinking about where each stitch needs to go in the row you are knitting to draw the diagonal lines, you can become very proficient at working the twisted traveling stitches, as well as other cables. Once you master this technique, you may even find that it is easier to knit cables from photographs of knitted fabric than from charts!

Learn More
Bäuerliches Stricken, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (Hardcover, in German) by Lisl Fanderl, Rosenheimer  Verlagshaus GmbH, Germany, 13th ed., 2011
(English translation key here.)

Überlieferte Strickmuster aus dem steirischen Ennstal, Volumnes 1, 2 and 3 (Paperback, in German) by Maria Erlbacher, Verein Schloss Trautenfels, 7th ed., 2004

Charts
The charts for this pattern are very large. Each fits on a letter-sized page.
Click below and print each resulting page.

Chart A | Chart B, D | Chart C