Mosaic Knitting: Colourful, and Surprisingly Simple!
If you have given up on knitting with multiple colours and is pretty much stuck on only single ones, then here’s good news for you – you can pull off a knitting project that may look complicated with many colours whilst only using one yarn at a time!
A huge number of knitters experience a fear of carrying two yarns at once, they find it a bit complicated. But if you’re up to a challenge and is quite adventurous, then you might find fulfilment with mosaic knitting. Mosaic knitting is quite easy. It uses a slip-stitch technique to produce multiple coloured fabrics simultaneously. You can make bold patterns, bands, or even colourful sweaters without ever needing to carry a second yarn.
Mosaic knitting was first recognised by Barbara Walker way back in the late 60’s. She was a famous knitter of her time known for collecting various knitting patterns and exploring all the known possibilities of knitting. Innumerable patterns of all shapes and techniques are found on her books.
As defined by Barbara, mosaic knitting is characterised by two colours using the slip-stitch technique. Two dissimilar yarn strands are used, one at each time though. Both the strands are significantly changed on one side of the row, mostly the right side. So in simpler terms, a mosaic pattern is created by working on two side rows ñ the right and the wrong side. It works by working with colour A until it reaches the right side row, where you then releases colour A and then picks up colour B working on the subsequent row.
The underlying technique behind mosaic knitting is pretty simple. If you can slip a stitch and simply knit a stripe, then you have all the skills that are needed. It simply involves stitching in the row of the other colour. For example, if you are stitching the darker colour, you should slip the lighter colour beneath, and if you are doing the lighter one, you just simply slip the darker colour behind.
Aside from the simplicity of the procedure and the alluring colourful designs, mosaic knitting has numerous advantages over other methods. Mosaic knitting can toil well on either round or flat surface which gives them more flexibility, the fabric turns out to be lighter because it doesn’t leave various floats compared to other multicolour techniques.
True knitting maybe a very broad craft with all levels of complexities, but it surely is a very fun way to make that lazy afternoon worthwhile.
