Melissa: a charted design for any craft

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After coming up with last week’s snowflake counterchange design, I realized that I could use the same basic layout as a frame for other motifs. This time I used the second motif that showed up in the Bubble charted design. It reminded me of an extremely stylized bee, so I’ve called this stitch pattern Melissa.

I might go on substituting different motifs into this framework, at least until I get bored. Or maybe I’ll tweak the framework to be the same repeat in both directions. Who knows?

The illustration is drawn as knitting, but the chart could be used for all kinds of crafts. I’d love to see if you make anything of it!

A drawing of how the Melissa counterchange chart might look as two-color knitting. It looks like alternating columns of large beads on strings, where blue bead strings are nested between white bead strings. There are blue motifs on the white beads and white motifs on the blue. The motifs are vertical rectangles with a horizontal line cutting them in half and sticking out to either side.
Chart showing how to work the Melissa charted design by means of dark and light squares. Written instructions in blog post.
click chart to enlarge
  • Melissa has a repeat of 12 + 1 columns and 10 + 1 rows.
  • 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.
  • This pattern is written in rounds, but because each row has mirror symmetry, the colors can be read in flat rows as written. If knitting, just work purl stitches on alternating rows instead of knit.
  • 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, *3A, (1B, 1A) × 2, 1B, 4A; work from *.

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

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

Round 4: work knit as follows; 1B, *2B, (2A, 3B) × 2; work from *.

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

Round 6: work knit as follows; 1A, *1B, 1A, 7B, 1A, 1B, 1A; work from *.

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

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

Round 9: work knit as follows; 1A, *1A, 2B, 5A, 2B, 2A; work from *.

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

Repeat rounds 1-10 as desired, ending with round 11.

Round 11: work knit as follows; 1A, *3A, (1B, 1A) × 2, 1B, 4A; work from *.