Lesson Info
5. How to Use Mosaic Colorwork Stitch Pattern
Lessons
Class Introduction
01:26 2Class Introduction
06:28 3How to Increase Using M1, YO, and kf&b Methods
10:38 4How to Basic Cable Stitch
16:48 5How to Use Mosaic Colorwork Stitch Pattern
10:59 6How to Lace Diamond Stitch Pattern & Read Chart
14:48 7How to Block
10:25 8How to Bobble Stitch
06:50Lesson Info
How to Use Mosaic Colorwork Stitch Pattern
Alright, let's talk color work a bit. There are tons of different ways that you can do color work, basic striping, which you've probably done by now. If you want to go crazy you can do intarsia or Fair Isle. But what I love to do, what I think is a really great gateway color stitch to some of the more intermediate and advanced techniques is called mosaic color work. The great thing about it is you never have to actually physically knit more than one color at a time. But it looks like you're doing more than that. So, looks fancy, super easy. I love that combination. So, the fun part about this class, at least for me, is that most of the stitches that you're learning today, you're going to actually get to use in a project. In the bonus material I've created three projects for you and the patterns for that are going to be included. The one for this particular project is this plaid hat. And I'm going to show you, this is also the stitch pattern that we're going to be going over with the sw...
atch. So this is just black and white, it kind of mocks plaid. There was a designer named Adam Lippes and he did this whole plaid thing for, I believe it was Target. And his was very like, it was more checkered than plaid. And it was super inspiring to me, I love black and white. Black and white is a huge trend right now and so I decided to just make a knitted variation and I used just the plain mosaic stitch. And I love it, I feel like it's super graphic, it's got a lot of interest to it, I did it with this bulky yarn. So, it speaks to kind of the bigger knits trend right now. And it's really warm and fun. So, make sure to download that pattern from the bonus materials. But there's a couple different ways that you can-- that's distracting, let me get that one out of the way. There are many different stitch patterns that you can do that's under the whole mosaic color work title. But this little swatch is just-- I had this laying around the house and you can see that it's got the different colors. I should say, mosaic work looks kind of like stained glass. It's little panes of color here and there. So, here you can see that there was some garter stitch work done with just peeks of color, or in this case, lack of color, with stockinette stitch. And on the same swatch, you'll notice there aren't any of those garter stitch texture bumps, this is a straight up stockinette mosaic work piece. So, exactly the same amount of stitches, the same technique, they're just not broken up with the garter stitch rows here, it's just stockinette rows. So, it's fun because it's similar, but they have pretty different looks to them, so that kind of opens up sort of the designer gateway. This is a swatch that I did for a scarf that I designed for Knit Simple magazine, and that'll be coming out I believe in the fall of 2016. And this is just another like, speaking to the trend, the trend of plaid. I love plaid and it's always great for fall, they say it's trend all the time, but when have you not been able to wear plaid in the fall? It's just classic, and if you do something like with this yarn, this is more of like a t-shirt yarn, it speaks a little more of a modern sensibility, so you can have some fun with it. And this is essentially the same stitch that we're going to be learning today. I just added another design element to it with an additional column that I added later. So, if you enjoy this stitch you can keep your eyes open for my column, I have a knit-along column, it's Knit-Along with Vickie Howell. And every issue we then knit the projects along on my Facebook page, share works in progress, share finished photos. I'm there to answer your questions, I usually have demo videos. So, it's just kind of a nice-- I love, I love that because of the Internet I get to be here with you, no matter where you are, internationally. And I get to continue to knit and crochet and be creative with you on the web. So, this is another project that we'll be working on, using a very similar technique as we're using today. So, let's go ahead and talk about this... Or get started, rather... On this stitch. Alright, so I worked a couple of repeats of this already. I've used this really cool green and white, this heathered green, that Plymouth was really kind enough to send me. So, we're going to get started. So, when you're working in mosaic, you're going to work with whatever the main color is and then the secondary color you're going to be slipping the stitches. So, what that means is that This first stitch we're going to be slipping. And unless the pattern tells you otherwise, whenever you slip a stitch you'll want to slip it purlwise, so that means insert the needle from the front and slip the stitch off. Alright, then you have two choices here. You can either knit the two next stitches like that. Actually, I would just do that. I was going to show you a crazy style, how to knit with both hands, but let's just take baby steps here. Alright, so we're going to knit two stitches and then we need to slip the next one. So, you're bookending, you're bookending the two knit stitches of one color with the slip stitches of the alternate color. And that's what creates this pattern. So, knit two. Slip the next one. Knit two. Slip the next one. Knit two. Slip one. Knit two. Slip one. And you just continue throughout it. Okay, so that's the right side row. So, then you're going to flip it over. So, when you're working with mosaic stitch work you're always going to do two rows of essentially the same thing. Meaning, you're always going to slip the same color twice. Once on the right side, once on the wrong side. Because if you didn't do it that way, look at where the yarn is. Do you see how you have one color, your working yarn is on one end, and then the other color is on the other end. There's no way to really make that work, so you really have to-- you went one way, you have to come on home before you can get started again. So... For here, because our little inside-- the insides of our squares are stockinette, on the wrong side, we're going to work those stitches, but they're going to be purled this time. The hat pattern that you'll be downloading from bonus materials is actually a garter version of the same pattern so you won't be purling, you'll be knitting every row so it's actually kind of easier. Alright, so we're purling. And then we're slipping that stitch. And you'll notice because we're on the wrong side and because we're purling, this yarn that we're working with is going to cross over that stitch that we've slipped. So it's carried over it. You won't see that from the front. But it's just the way that the yarn travels. So, we're slipping. Purling. Slip one. Purl two. And then we slipped the end. Alright, so now we're flipping our piece over. So, we've done all of the color work. That's it. I mean, it looks like you were working with a bunch of colors, you really just had to work with one color at a time, so super easy. But now you need to-- you can only really carry a yarn, meaning not work the stitches, really more than two rows. If you do it more than two rows, the fabric's going to start kind of puckering. So, we've had these green stitches, all we've done for two rows is slip them, which means more fabric hasn't been created. They've just been hanging out loopy style, right? So, we really need to work them now. So, now we're going to just let our white color hang out free and easy, and we're going to go ahead and just knit every stitch with the green. And you'll see that because I've moved over to another color, see how that loop got all huge? It's just because there was nothing holding it down, just give it a little tug. Not too tight, you don't want it to pucker. And you're going to just continue knitting. So, you'll knit all of the stitches, the ones that we slipped and the ones that were worked on the row below. And then if you remember what we just went over, we know that since we have to have both strands of color at the same end before we can start doing anything again, we know that we're going to have to work the same stitches again on the wrong side. Since this is a garter stripe that we're putting in, that means that we're going to knit on the wrong side too. So, super easy peasy. And it's really fun to watch the colors come together. Minimal effort, but maximum appeal, I think. Which to me, is pretty much a win-win. Alright, so we're rounding it out. Home stretch, and we've finished our last stitch. And those four rows of slipping stitches and then knitting them and then doing the garter stripe create your overall mosaic stitch pattern. Again, please make sure to check out the hat pattern that is going to be in the bonus materials, and I would love, love, love if you snapped a picture of it being once it was finished, or even better of you wearing it and tag @VickieHowell and @CreativeLive so that we can see it, I love seeing projects that my students have made, it makes my whole heart happy, so if you would do that, I would love it. Alright, let's see what else we can get ourselves into.
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Ramona Morrissette-Nagai
She is engaging, warm, and educational.
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