2021: a mosaic knitting stitch pattern

Posted on by

I have a small tradition of turning the digits of the upcoming year into knitting patterns. I must admit the last few years, I’ve felt less and less like doing it because each year feels grimmer.

Still, I’ve decided to go ahead and do it for 2021 with a kind of determined persistence. May this coming year be better! Also, I like the result. (I’m posting this a few days early because I have a Patreon post that will go up on January 1.)

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.

depiction of how the 2021 mosaic knitting chart might look in a finished object
chart illustrating how to knit the 2021 mosaic knitting pattern, by means of dark and light squares.
Click chart to enlarge

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.

Notes:

  • This is a stitch pattern such as might be found in a stitch dictionary. This is not a pattern for a finished object.
  • 2021 is a multiple of 6 + 1 stitches and either 24 or 24 + 12 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): *k1, sl 1, k3, sl 1; work from * to last st, k1.

Row 2: k1, *sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif, k1; work from *

Switch to color A.

Row 3: *k3, sl 1, k2; work from * to last st, k1.

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

Switch to color B.

Row 5: *sl 1, k1, sl 1, k1, sl 1, k1; work from * to last st, sl 1.

Row 6: sl 1 wyif, *k1, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 7: *k1, sl 1, k3, sl 1; work from * to last st, k1.

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

Switch to color B.

Row 9: *k3, sl 1, k2; work from * to last st, k1.

Row 10: k1, *k2, sl 1 wyif, k3; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 11: *sl 1, k1, sl 1, k1, sl 1, k1; work from * to last st, sl 1.

Row 12: sl 1 wyif, *k1, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

Happy New Year!