Master this great colourwork technique and let a rainbow of stitches flood your knits
MEET THE EXPERT
ANEETA PATEL
Mosaic stitch fan Aneeta Patel learned to knit when she was five years old. She teaches knitting classes in London and runs advice website www.knittingsos.co.uk.
“Are you like me and love colour? Then this could be the knitting technique for you! When it comes to colourwork, the first thing knitters think of is Fair Isle or intarsia. Mosaic knitting is hardly spoken about these days, but when choosing colour techniques, it’s my go-to option, even for beginners, as it’s simple to achieve something really beautiful. In mosaic knitting, you only work with one colour of yarn on each row. This means that it’s less fiddly than Fair Isle where you have to carry both colours of yarn along each row. Any knitting technique that looks complicated but is actually very simple wins top marks in my book!
Polka dots
This pretty, yet simple mosaic pattern is knitted using stocking stitch. It’s a great stitch to start learning mosaic knitting with
Cast on a multiple of 4 sts in Colour A.
Row 1 (RS) In Colour A knit 1 row.
Row 2 (WS) In Colour A Purl 1 row.
Row 3 (RS) In Colour B K3, (sl2wyib, K2) rep to last st, K1. (See below.)
Row 4 (WS) In Colour B P3, (sl2wyif, P2) rep to last st, P1. (See above.)
Row 5 (RS) In Colour A Knit 1 row.
Row 6 (WS) In Colour A Purl 1 row.
Row 7 (RS) In Colour B K1, (sl2wyib, K2) rep to last 3 sts, sl2, K1.
Row 8 (WS) In Colour B P1, (sl2wyif, P2) rep to last 3 sts, sl2, P1. Repeat Rows 1 to 8.
Abbreviations on page
87
Swirls
Once you’ve tried the basic technique in the polka dot pattern try swirls for an impressive and versatile colourwork pattern
Cast on a multiple of 10 + 2 (for eg 12, 22, 32, etc) in Colour A, Row 1 (RS) In Colour A knit 1 row.
Row 2 and all WS rows With same colour as the previous row, purl the purl stitches and slip the slipped stitches wyif.
Row 3 (RS) In Colour B K1, (K8, sl2wyib) rep to last st, K1.
Row 5 (RS) In Colour A K1, (sl2wyib, K4, SL2, K2) rep to last st, K1.
Row 7(RS) In Colour B K1, (K2, sl2wyib, K4, sl2) rep to last st, K1.
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