Samuel: a mosaic knitting chart

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I needed a change of pace for this week, so I came up with a way of pseudo-randomly generating a mosaic knitting chart, and then I edited the first result to suit myself. Since I didn’t have a built-in name for it, I decided to name it for a relative.

And here we are!

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.

how the Samuel mosaic chart looks after it's been repeated in both directions. It's a geometric designs with lots of right angles.
chart showing how to work the Samuel mosaic knitting chart by means of dark and light squares. Written instructions in blog post.
click chart 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.
  • Samuel is a multiple of 6 stitches and either 40 + 2 or 40 + 12 rows. (end after either row 2 or 22.)
  • 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): *k3, sl 1, k2; work from *.

Row 2 (WS): *k2, sl 1 wyif, k3; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 3: *k4, sl 1, k1; work from *.

Row 4: *k1, sl 1 wyif, k4; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 5: *sl 1, k1, sl 1, k3; work from *.

Row 6: *k3, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 7: *k1, sl 1, k2, sl 1, k1; work from *.

Row 8: *k1, sl 1 wyif, k2, sl 1 wyif, k1; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 9: *(sl 1, k2) × 2; work from *.

Row 10: *(k2, sl 1 wyif) × 2; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 11: *k1, sl 1, k3, sl 1; work from *.

Row 12: *sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif, k1; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 13: *(sl 1, k2) × 2; work from *.

Row 14: *(k2, sl 1 wyif) × 2; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 15: *k1, sl 1, k2, sl 1, k1; work from *.

Row 16: *k1, sl 1 wyif, k2, sl 1 wyif, k1; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 17: *sl 1, k1, sl 1, k3; work from *.

Row 18: *k3, sl 1 wyif, k1, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 19: *k4, sl 1, k1; work from *.

Row 20: *k1, sl 1 wyif, k4; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 21: *k3, sl 1, k2; work from *.

Row 22: *k2, sl 1 wyif, k3; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 23: *k2, sl 1, k3; work from *.

Row 24: *k3, sl 1 wyif, k2; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 25: *sl 1, k3, sl 1, k1; work from *.

Row 26: *k1, sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 27: *(k2, sl 1) × 2; work from *.

Row 28: *(sl 1 wyif, k2) × 2; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 29: *(sl 1, k2) × 2; work from *.

Row 30: *(k2, sl 1 wyif) × 2; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 31: *k1, sl 1, k3, sl 1; work from *.

Row 32: *sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif, k1; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 33: *(sl 1, k2) × 2; work from *.

Row 34: *(k2, sl 1 wyif) × 2; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 35: *(k2, sl 1) × 2; work from *.

Row 36: *(sl 1 wyif, k2) × 2; work from *.

Switch to color B.

Row 37: *sl 1, k3, sl 1, k1; work from *.

Row 38: *k1, sl 1 wyif, k3, sl 1 wyif; work from *.

Switch to color A.

Row 39: *k2, sl 1, k3; work from *.

Row 40: *k3, sl 1 wyif, k2; work from *.

Repeat as desired; end after either row 2 or row 22.