KASAD11: Blocks

KASAD11: Blocks 

I love love love this square. I love the way that the colours turned out, and I love the way that the 'blocks' sit together. I made this block when we had our suprise trip to the beach at Easter which was wonderfully relaxing and much needed.

This square is a little more complicated than most of the ones which I have posted so far, mostly due to the colour change mid row. It took me a while to work out how to change colours mid row. Most of the instructions I read said something along the lines of 'make sure you twist the yarn at the back' but That still wouldn't work for me. I would end up with separate pieces of each colour, sometimes twisted and tangled to the adjacent colour but certainly not one piece.

I did more knitting, improved my skills and gave up on mid row colour changes for a while. At this time I was knitting a lot of beanies (warm hats) - has anyone worked out what my problem was yet?

Since I was making a lot of beanies, I was knitting in the round. I love knitting with round needles - even when I'm knitting in rows I will often use circular needles as I prefer the way they sit in my hands. In order to change colours mid row neatly, you need to be knitting in rows. So, what I learned about changing colour mid row...

- Do a few rows/ ridges of one colour, at least at the beginning. It then gives you a band of 'normal' knitting to work from. Garter stitch (knit every row) is a really, really good idea while you're learning,

- Knit along in the first colour. When you want to change colours, just let go of the first colour and start knitting with the next colour. Don't worry about twisting or anything yet.

- Continue to the end of the row in the second colour. When you finish that row, turn your work around and knit back to the spot where you changed colours.

- At this point, let go of the second colour and go back to the first. Knit the next stitch after you have twisted it with the second colour yarn. Don't twist it around and around, just get the strands to cross over once. The yarns may have done this themselves when you turned the work at the end of the row.

- Keep knitting with the first colour until you have finidhed that row. Voila!

Materials

- 8 ply yarn in four colours. Approximately 30g of main colour, 20g or less of the other three colours.
- 6 mm knitting needles
- yarn needle to weave in ends, scissors to cut yarn.

Skills and difficulty
Beginner - intermediate  knitter
- cast on
- cast off
- knit stitch
- changing colour at the end of row

- changing colour in the middle of row

Colours
In this example, C1 is green, C2 is hot pink, C3 is royal blue and C4 is white

Procedure
1. Using C1, cast on 32 stitches
2. Knit every row in C1 (work in garter stitch) for 8 rows (4 ridges). End C1

3. Change to C2. Knit 16 stitches.

This is where you will change colour as described above

4. Change to C3. Knit 16 stitches to the end of the row.

5. Knit 16 stitches of the next row (row 10). This should bring you back to the colour change.

6. Ensuring that C2 is twisted/ linked once to C3, continue knitting in C2 to the end of the row.

7. Repeat steps 3 - 6 three more times to give a total of 8 rows (4 ridges) of C2 and C3 blocks. End C2, end C3.

8. Change to C1. Knit every row in C1 (work in garter stitch) for 8 rows (4 ridges). End C1.

9. Change to C3. Knit 16 stitches.

10. Change to C4. Knit 16 stitches to the end of the row.

11. Knit 16 stitches of the next row (row 26). This should bring you back to the colour change.

12. Ensuring that C3 is twisted/ linked once to C4, continue knitting in C3 to the end of the row.

13. Repeat steps 9 - 12 three more times to give a total of 8 rows (4 ridges) of C3 and C4 blocks. End C3, end C4.

14. Change to C1. Knit every row in C1 (work in garter stitch) for 8 rows (4 ridges). End C1.

15. Change to C4. Knit 16 stitches.

16. Change to C2. Knit 16 stitches to the end of the row.

17. Knit 16 stitches of the next row (row 42). This should bring you back to the colour change.

18. Ensuring that C4 is twisted/ linked once to C2, continue knitting in C2 to the end of the row.

19. Repeat steps 15 - 18 three more times to give a total of 8 rows (4 ridges) of C4 and C2 blocks. End C4, end C2.

20. Change to C1. Knit every row in C1 (work in garter stitch) for 8 rows (4 ridges).

21. Cast off and leave a 50cm tail.
22. Weave in beginning end and butterfly the tail.


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