It's a Stitch Up

The pattern uses 12 semi-solid or gently variegated shades, and draws influence from a variety of colourwork traditions.

Skill level

Enthusiast ●●●○
Suitable for knitters comfortable working in-the-round, following charts and simple stranded colourwork/Fair Isle techniques. The stranded rows are two-colour, with floats spanning no more than seven stitches.

Instructions for bobbles, cable cast-on and our tips for stranded colourwork are given in the pattern. All colourwork is charted.

Suggested yarn

• It’s a Stitch Up Favourite Sock (365m/400 yards per 100g skein, 100% Merino wool), or
• It’s a Stitch Up Favourite Sock Minis (73m/80 yards per 20g skein, 100% Merino wool)

Alternative yarns

Any 4 ply/sock/fingering weight yarn with a smooth texture and springy quality. If using a mixture of different yarns then match texture and use similar fibre blends.

To build your own kit, we recommend RiverKnits Bluefaced Leicester 4 Ply minis, available in over 70 hand dyed semisolid colourways. Becci at RiverKnits is happy to offer advice about choosing colours for this pattern.

Colours

Our sample is show in one-off shades produced for our 12 Days of Yarn-mas kit. This list is a guide to help you choose your own set of solid, semi-solid or lightly variegated colourways.

• C1 – Dark green, forest green (e.g.  Deep Forest). 40m/44 yards
• C2 – Bright green, emerald or spruce. 30m/33 yards
• C3 – Pale green, light sage, palest grey. 40m/44 yards
• C4 – Light grey. 44m/48 yards
• C5 – Mid grey, bluish grey (e.g. Southbank). 26m/28 yards
• C6 – Dark grey, charcoal, dark denim blue (e.g. Jean Genie). 26m/29 yards
• C7 – Pale yellow, cream, off white (e.g. natural). 25m/27 yards
• C8 – Bright yellow, pale peach, light orange (e.g. Sunset Beach, Health and Safety Gone Mad). 17m/19 yards
• C9 – Peach, bright orange, dusky pink (e.g. Traffic Cone). 30m/33 yards
• C10 – Bright pink, red, dusky purple (e.g. Momiji).  31m/34 yards
• C11 – Bright purple, dark pink, plum (e.g. Professor Plum). 21m/22 yards
• C12 – Dark purple, twilight blue (e.g.  Dancing in the Dark, Brixton Purple). 48m/52 yards

C3-C6 should transition smoothly from light to dark. C7-C12 should form a harmonious colour fade.

Size

Finished blocked measurements:

Width (flat): 32cm/12½ inches
Length: 29cm/11½

Needles & equipment

• 3.25mm (US 3) circular needle (or size needed to give correct tension) at least 60cm/24 inches long
• Stitch marker or loop of scrap yarn to denote the start of row

Tension/gauge

31 stitches and 35 rows over 10cm/4 inches in stranded colourwork, after gentle blocking.

A knitter’s tension for stranded colourwork can be tighter than regular stocking/stockinette stitch and can change considerably when blocked. We recommend knitting, washing and blocking a swatch in pattern to check tension. As this is not a fitted garment it is not necessary to match the exact tension, but if your stitch tension is more than 2 stitches tighter or looser than that specified we recommend changing needle size.