Have you seen Emily K. Williams October Confident Knitting design yet? It’s the stunning Findhorn Wrap, an Anni Albers-inspired stole that makes use of textured rectangles of different colours to achieve it’s dramatic effect.
Photo © Jesse Wild.
Bold blocks of discrete colour can pose a bit of a puzzle for a knitting designer. They are not easy to create using stranded colourwork techniques — the floats would be impossibly long, especially given that each horizontal row of the Findhorn Wrap uses at least three and sometimes four colours. Intarsia is, of course, always an option for creating large blocks of colour, but it’s not the only one! Instead, Emily has turned to modular knitting to create a beautiful fabric made up of geometric shapes … and it is this month’s featured Confident Knitting technique!
At it’s most basic, modular knitting just means knitting small geometric shapes that are ultimately joined up to make a larger piece. Shapes can be sewn together, or crocheted, but for the Findhorn Wrap, Emily has used a clever twofold strategy that seamlessly joins the rectangles to one another and creates a lovely eyelet detail in the process.
The joy of modular knitting + this project is that though you’re creating a generously sized wrap, you are rarely working rows that are longer than 25 stitches. (The only exception is a handful of rows at the start and finish of the project.) The rectangles are quick and satisfying to knit, and before you know it, you’ll have “just one more rectangle”-ed your way to a colourful finished wrap!
Photo © Jesse Wild.
Ready to see how it’s done? In this video tutorial, Jen will take you through the methods used to create your own modular masterpiece: Modular Knitting Tutorial on YouTube.
And of course, you’ll find the in-depth stepwise photo tutorial demonstrating this method in Confident Knitting!
So, have you cast on yet? We’ve still got a few Autumn Kits in stock (£95 with free UK shipping) with all the yarn you’ll need for the Findhorn Wrap (as well as yarn for September and October’s CK patterns), or pick your own colours of Coop Knits Socks Yeah 4ply. You’ll need two skeins each of two colours, and one skein each of three additional shades (£43.75 + shipping). We’re chatting all things modular knitting in this month’s Confident Knitting topic, and any project using modular knitting is welcome … we’d love to see you over there.