Ideas for Self Patterning Yarn – Part 1
A few years ago, when the yarn companies came out with printed, aka as self patterning sock yarns they were all the rage. Like most knitters I was also fascinated. They are so colorful and fun to work with – seeing the pattern develop as your project grow, how could one resist them? Well, I couldn’t. Especially not, when I saw them in the yarn store and most especially not when they were on sale. So I accumulated quite a stash.
But as with many things, once the novelty wore out, they lost a bit of thier attraction. Everybody was knitting all kinds of things with print yarns and I grew tired of seeing them, somehow. I still like them for socks, but I really, really, really do not need the amount of socks I could knit from all the print yarn I have on stash. But bigger projects like shawl or garments made from self patterning yarn look strange to me, so I was looking for a solution that would work for me and I decided to soften the effect by adding a solid color.
So I made a few swatches and started a few projects which I am going to present you over the next few days. Lets start with the easiest version today:
Alternating Garter Rows
Shown from the front and from the back. I used one skein of self-patterning yarn and one skein of solid pastel pink. I can easily see this as a simple assymmetrical triangle shawl – maybe spruced up with fringes or tassels at the corners.
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Knitting this simple stashbusting shawl is easy:
With C1: co 3 sts
Row 1: kfb, k2 (4 sts)
Row 2: k1 with both yarns held together, k3
Row 3: With C2 kfb, k to end. (+ 1 st)
Row 4: k1 with both yarns held together, k to end.
Row 5: With C1 kfb, k to end (+ 1 st)
Row 6: k1 with both yarns held together, k to end.
Repeat Rows 3 to 6 until your shawl has the desired size.
Abbreviations:
C1, C2: color 1, color 2
co: cast on
kfb: knit into front and back (1 stitch increased)
k: knit
In the next installment we will tackle the Moss Stich, but meanwhile you can start your stashbusting garter triangle.
Hugs
Ingrid ♥
Live. Knit. Love.