Patterns with Variegated Yarns

Until Ann posted a picture of her "mock fair-isle" afghan (click here for picture and instructions) and mentioned getting that pattern from a variegated yarn, I had never really thought about that at all, but what a great idea! Since then I have knitted up numerous skeins of Red Heart, Wintuk, Caron, and Dazzelaire but have only come up with about 3 patterns so far. Please post to the Bond list if you come up with anything similar or drop me a line!

This zig-zag pattern resulted from knitting with Red Heart Yarn "Soft", 7952 Gem, across a total of 34 stitches with keyplate 3 with the needles in this arrangement: Last needle in WP, next needle in NWP, next 32 needles in WP, 1 needle in NWP, last needle on other end in WP. I used this needle arrangement because I figured at this width, the panel would most likely be used for an afghan, the end stitches latched up to the next panel.

This pattern resulted from knitting Caron "Misty Mauve", Ombre 2807, also across a total of 34 needles in the same arrangement as above and with keyplate 3: 1st needle in WP, 2d needle in NWP, next 32 needles in WP, next in NWP, last in WP.

This pattern resulted from knitting Caron, "Simply Soft", Evening Jewels, Ombre 2707, across a total of 38 needles with Knitsmart keyplate 35: 1 needle in WP, 1 needle in NWP, next 36 in WP, 1 needle in NWP, last needle in WP. It is very close to the pattern Ann has on her afghan so the skeins must be pretty consistent. I knitted this with quite a number of stitch variations but this gave the best plaid result. I think keyplate 3 also gave a similar result.

I tried all sorts of things, such as starting with this or that color in the eye of the carriage and also attempted to knit with two skeins of yarn, starting with the same color at opposite ends of the bed. I thought I could have the two meet in the center as in intarsia knitting and that would give me twice the width. That really should work, but I kept getting confused as to which side I had knitted last! Let me know if you have any success with similar yarns!

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This page last updated 27- June - 2001