Starry Bats: a charted design for any craft

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When I was picking out the charted design for Flow, one of the other possible charts had an interesting motif in it that I liked a lot. I pulled it out of the chart it was in, laid it out on a plain background, and then added a few speckles in the gaps. The result looks to me like stylized bats flying against a starry sky, and it makes me happy.

How Starry Bats might look as stranded knitting: stylized bats with arcs of stars in the form of speckles over their heads.
chart showing how to work Starry Bats by means of dark and light squares. Written instructions in blog post.
click chart to enlarge
  • Starry Bats has a repeat of 8 + 1 columns and 10 + 5 rounds. Rounds 1-5 are the same as rounds 6-10, just offset halfway. End after round 5 or round 10.
  • In the written instructions, color A is the light squares above, and color B is the dark.
  • The written instructions below are formatted for stranded knitting, but it is my hope that they could be translated into instructions for other crafts. For instance, if working filet crochet, 1A could be one open square and 2B could be two filled-in squares.
  • Designers, please feel free to use this in your patterns (no need to ask). I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it.
  • My blog posts and 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!

Round 1: work knit as follows; 1A, *(3 grey, 1A) × 2; work from *. (9 sts)

Round 2: work knit as follows; 1A, *1A, 5 grey, 2A; work from *.

Round 3: work knit as follows; 1 grey, *(3A, 1 grey) × 2; work from *.

Round 4: work knit as follows; 1A, *7 grey, 1A; work from *.

Round 5: work knit as follows; 1 grey, *1 grey, 1A, 3 grey, 1A, 2 grey; work from *.

Round 6: work knit as follows; 1A, *(3 grey, 1A) × 2; work from *.

Round 7: work knit as follows; 1 grey, *2 grey, 3A, 3 grey; work from *.

Round 8: work knit as follows; 1 grey, *(3A, 1 grey) × 2; work from *.

Round 9: work knit as follows; 1 grey, *3 grey, 1A, 4 grey; work from *.

Round 10: work knit as follows; 1 grey, *1 grey, 1A, 3 grey, 1A, 2 grey; work from *.

Repeat as desired, ending after round 5 or 10.