This is what I’m working on, Shestikratnyy (Russian for “sextuple”), because there are six yarnovers in the middle of it.

This is the whole width of it: a center panel with 2 side panels, 124 stitches across, intended to be a stole.  The center panel is made up of the main pattern knitted on a half-drop, alternating every 4th row, with a side panel (chart and close-up shown below), with a 6-stitch seed stitch border.

Way down below I explain the method I use for executing K4tog and SSSSK.

Here’s a close-up of the right border panel stitch chart:

with a picture: 

I like the effect with the pattern stacked vertically more than I like the alternating half-drop, so I might let go of the stole I’ve started and do something different.  It does make an interesting border.

The Knit 4 together (K4tog) can be tricky, but it works the same as K2tog.  However, unless you have allowed extra yarn into the stitches below, it can be a challenge.  We know that the K2tog/K4tog is a right-leaning decrease; i.e., the left-most stitch is stacked on top of the others, or is the one most visible from the front, whether they are manipulated all at once or individually.  So, Knit 1, slip the newly knitted stitch back to the left needle, and manually passed the next 3 stitches over the new stitch; then return that stitch back to the right needle.

For the SSSSK, as with the Slip-Slip-Knit (SSK) [or the ‘Slip 1, Knit 1, pass slipped stitch over’, or ‘SKpsso’], it is a left-leaning decrease, so you must first re-orient the stitches so the right-most stitch needs to be stacked in front of the others.  I have found the easiest way for me to make this happen is to slip 1 as if to knit (this reorients it correctly), slip another as if to knit, then slip a third as if to knit, then knit the 4th stitch, and then slip those 3 slipped stitches back over the newly knitted stitch.  Since those 3 are now oriented correctly, you can slip them back individually or as a group, they will land with the correct orientation.

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