Wren: a mosaic knitting chart

A while back, I encoded the word Wren and made it into a lace stitch pattern and a needlework chart. For this week’s post, I reworked a code grid I made while planning that post and turned it into a mosaic knitting stitch pattern. (I used the process described in this post.)

A nice thing about mosaic knitting is that the charts are similar to the final appearance of the knitting, so I’m not going to provide a swatch. Mosaic knitting looks difficult, but it’s not as hard as it looks! Basically, knit two-row stripes, and slip stitches from the row below to make the contrasting pattern.

Here’s a detailed blog post I wrote about how it works.

This is a Barbara-Walker-style mosaic chart. Each row of squares in it represents two rows of knitting (which is why there’s a row number at each end). The square in the column to the right of the row numbers indicates the color of yarn being worked in that line. So in rows 1 & 2, all black squares are knit or purled, and all white squares are slipped with the yarn being held on the wrong side of the work. In rows 3 & 4, all white squares are knit or purled and all black squares are slipped.

sample image for Wren: a mosaic knitting chart, by Naomi Parkhurst
Wren: a mosaic knitting chart, by Naomi Parkhurst
Click to enlarge

Notes:

  • This is a stitch pattern such as might be found in a stitch dictionary. This is not a pattern for a finished object.
  • Wren is a multiple of 23 + 1 stitches and 8 rows.
  • The non-slipped stitches in the second row of each stripe may be either knit or purled, as desired.
  • Designers, please feel free to use this in your patterns. I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it.
  • My blog posts and free stitch patterns are supported by subscriptions on Patreon or donations to my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. If you appreciate my work, please consider helping out. Thanks!

Abbreviations:

  • k: knit.
  • p: purl.
  • sl 1: Slip 1 stitch purlwise with yarn in back.
  • sl 1 wyif: Slip 1 stitch purlwise with yarn in front.

Start by casting on and then knitting a row in color A (represented by the white squares in the chart), or by having at least two rows of color A before starting the mosaic knitting.

switch to color B

Row 1 (RS): *(k2, sl 1) × 2, k1, sl 1, k7, sl 1, k1, sl 1, k2, sl 1, k1; work from *, k1.

Row 2 (WS): k1, *k1, sl 1 wyif, k2, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif, k7, sl 1 wyif, k1, (sl 1 wyif, k2) × 2; work from *.

switch to color A

Row 3: *k3, sl 2, k3, sl 1, k1, sl 3, k1, sl 1, k3, sl 2, k2; work from *, k1.

Row 4: k1, *k2, sl 2 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 3 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 2 wyif, k3; work from *.

switch to color B

Row 5: *sl 1, k5, sl 1, k9, sl 1, k5; work from *, sl.

Row 6: sl 1 wyif, *k5, sl 1 wyif, k9, sl 1 wyif, k5, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

switch to color A

Row 7: *k1, sl 1, k7, sl 1, k3, sl 1, k7, sl 1; work from *, k1.

Row 8: k1, *sl 1 wyif, k7, sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif, k7, sl 1 wyif, k1; work from *.