There is a stitch pattern with a simple one-row repeat that forms a beautiful chevron fabric with zigzag motifs throughout. This pattern is based on garter stitch, so the fabric is flat and reversible when worked in a solid colour – perfect for scarves and blankets.
If we make this pattern with several colours changing the colours every two rows, our projects will look a lot like the famous stripy patterns designed by the Missoni fashion house.
As an additional bonus, this colourful pattern works great for using up leftover yarn. If you have odd balls of yarn in your stash, you can easily make a scrap scarf or a scrap blanket that doesn’t look like a “scrap project” at all.
Here’s how you can do it. You can watch every step described below in a video tutorial:
PLANNING
Start by sorting the yarns in your stash. Find the ones that are of a similar thickness and in the colours that you like.
Use the trick described over here to see how the colours look together and adjust your colour combination if necessary.
Then make up a sequence of stripes that will show off the colours you picked. The easiest way to do it is to repeat the same sequence of colours. For example, if you plan to use yellow, orange and red yarns, you will use them in your project in the same order – yellow, orange, red, yellow orange, red, etc.
If you want to make a more interesting colour pattern, experiment by drawing a few patterns with a set of markers, or use a helpful online tool called “Stripes Pattern Generator”. That’s what I did to generate the colour pattern featured in this tutorial.
Take the needles that you feel will work well with the yarn you picked and now we are all set to get knitting.
CAST ON
Use the yarn in a colour of the first stripe to cast on a multiple of 12 stitches plus 1 stitch using any cast on method you like.
A simple long-tail cast on works fine, but if you want to make the edge of your project extra nice, use the Bulgarian cast on or Latvian twist.
If you plan to give a special treatment to the side edges of your project, add the number of stitches you would need for selvedges to the number of stitches you cast on.
I won’t add any selvedges to my swatch to keep it simple, so I cast on 3 x 12 + 1 = 37 stitches using the long-tail cast on.
As you see in the photo below, the edge formed by this cast on method, works well with the garter chevron pattern.
PATTERN ROW
Knit 1 stitch.
Then work the pattern repeat:
Knit 5 stitches.
Knit 2 stitches together through the back loop.
Feel free to knit 2 stitches together through the front loop when you make a decrease but knitting through the back loop is usually easier.
This decrease does look a little bit different than the one made by knitting two stitches through the front loop, but this slight difference won’t show in this fabric, so why not use the easier of the two decreases, right?
Knit 4 stitches.
Knit into the front and back of the next stitch.
Work the pattern repeat to the end of the row.
Here’s how the pattern row instructions look in a short format:
Knit 1, [knit 5, knit 2 together through the back loop, knit 4, knit front and back], repeat the brackets to the end of the row.
Repeat the pattern row in every row, changing the colours after every two rows, and you will make a lovely colourful fabric that shows off neat zigzag stripes on one side of the work and funkier messy stripes on the other side.
BIND OFF
When you are happy with the length of your project, or you simply run out of yarn, bind off all stitches as knits. Do it in the second row of the last stripe to keep the pattern consistent.
DEALING WITH THE YARN TAILS
The big question is – what do we do with the numerous yarn tails that we create when we change colours?
There are three main ways to deal with this issue.
WAY #1
You can weave in all those tails after the project is finished. It will be a huge task, so if you plan to take this route, I highly recommend weaving the tails as you knit, as explained in this tutorial.
WAY #2
To avoid weaving in the yarn tails, use the secure knot every time you change colours. This knot is quite strong and it keeps the strands from unravelling even when we trim the tails very short.
WAY #3
Another way to deal with the yarn tails is to show them off by making fringes.
Every time you change colours, leave tails at least 15 cm / 6″ long. Let them hang at the side of the project until the project is finished. Then use an overhand knot to tie them in bunches of three, four or more strands. Once all strands are tied, place the project on a flat surface and trim the tails to the same length.
To avoid any yarn waste, you can use the secure knot to join yarns even in the middle of a row. Then your project will resemble charming vintage rugs with the colours changing in a chaotic pattern.
SAVE IT FOR LATER:
This and 41 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #6.