My Textured Swatch Blanket
My Textured Swatch Blanket
A colorful learning journey!
This year, I experimented with different stitch techniques, inspired by a 1980s stitching book a friend gifted me last year.
It’s called The Complete Stitch Dictionary: Knitting, Crochet, Embroidery And Needlepoint, and it was published in 1988 by the Artists House.
While learning the different techniques was fascinating, especially when I discovered lovely vintage patterns I hadn’t seen before, but…
Then I just had a whole bag of swatches just sitting there. I knew I’ll had to make something out of the swatches eventually, so I chose a blanket!
The Stitch Swatches I Made
(They’re listed in alphabetical order. Leave a comment if you try knitting one!)
3x3 Cable Stitch
A 3x3 cable done without a cable needle, which is easier than you think! Garter stitch on the edges.
Cables are fun to do! With practice knitting cables without a cable needle, by rearranging the stitches becomes easier.
Andalusian Stitch
A 4 row pattern repeat with knit and purl stitches. I like the overall effect.
Bamboo Stitch
I love how it looks like woven bamboo. It uses knit, purl and yarn over stitches.
Basket Loop Stitch
A unique spin on the classic basket weave. Instead of straight lines ‘woven’, the vertical ones are straight, and the horizontal ones are curved.
Lends itself to a great looking cushion cover!
Bubble Stitch
The technique uses knitting a stitch 4 rows below, which at first seems tricky. Undoing stitches kind of goes against the grain!
The texture looks just like bubbles.
Butterfly Stitch
It would make a sweet hat design. These are two completed pattern repeats for my Butterfly Stitch swatch.
Caterpillar Stitch
Such an apt name! The groups of knit stitches look just like Caterpillars.
Chevron Garter Stitch
I'm very fond of geometrical shapes. It’d make a fun washcloth/blanket design.
Chinese Wave Stitch
It uses knits and slip stitches and knits up thickly. It’d make a great potholder.
Cross Knit Stitch
It creates a dense woven texture. It also has a fair amount of twist, so blocking is necessary. A good stitch for advanced beginners as it’s a 2 row repeat.
Daisy Stitch
The "daisies" are created by going through 3 stitches purlwise and keeping the stitches on the left hand needle. Then yarn over and purling through the 3 stitches and dropping those stitches off the needle.
This can be difficult to begin with but worth the effort as it looks pretty!
Diagonal Basketweave Stitch
The Diagonal Basketweave stitch on US8 (5mm) knitting needles. The fabric is tight and dense. It was much harder to knit this stitch on the smaller needles.
A 2 row repeat of crossing 2 stitches on both the knit and purl sides with a garter stitch border. I did this swatch on a size US11 (8mm).
The overall fabric is soft with drape which is lovely. The previous swatch I shared using US8 (5mm) is noticeably different!
Diagonal Chevron Zigzag Stitch
It amazes me how a pattern repeat with only knit and purl stitches can turn out!
Diamond Brocade Stitch
I really like the look of this stitch. It’d make a lovely throw rug.
Double Moss Stitch
Simple to do with only knits and purls but the effect looks great!
Elongated Rhombus Stitch
These are the first 20 rows. I see sheaves of wheat! What about you? With more rows, the Rhombus pattern is more obivious.
Embossed Leaf Stitch
Garter Stitch
Herringbone Stitch
Up until now, I've enjoyed knitting my swatches of textured stitches. I didn't enjoy this one, the Herringbone Stitch.
The stitches were particularly fiddly and time consuming.
I think this cotton/acrylic blend didn't work well, as it doesn't have enough stretch. It creates a lovely woven look so it's got that going for it!
So I tried the Herringbone Stitch again and this swatch looks much better!
Horseshoe Cable Stitch
Horseshoe Cables are fun to do!
Lattice Seed Stitch
This would make a wonderful Baby Blanket.
Peppercorn Stitch
The little knots are created by working a knit stitch 4 times. It's easy to remember the 4 row repeat as two of those are purl rows.
Puffed Rib Stitch
Isn't this a beautiful looking stitch! I'm imagining a cardigan in fine weight yarn, knitted up in this stitch would be amazing.
Purled Rhombus Stitch
This would make a lovely knit pattern for a throw design. The 2CR and 2CL are easy to do without a cable needle.
Raspberry Stitch
This is such a sweet vintage stitch. It's called the Raspberry Stitch because of its resemblance to the fruit. This would suit a gorgeous tea cozy design!
Reverse Stockinette Stitch
Rope Stitch
The edges in my swatch are created with slipping the first stitch. The pattern says to either knit or purl them depending on the row.
That looked messy to me, so after a few rows, I ripped back and started again and slipped the first stitch of each row. This is such a great stitch!
The P2CR creates the cable that looks like a rope. I can imagine a gorgeous hat using this stitch.
I tried the I-Cord edge for the Rope stitch, as the previous swatch with the slipped first stitch still curled.
Royal Quilting Stitch
Such a clever knit stitch pattern!
Seafoam Wave Drop Stitch
It reminds me of macrame!
I think it would work better with a different kind of yarn. The dropped stitches in my swatch look messy, due to the yarn strands separating. A fun stitch to knit.
Sycamore Stitch
It’s a combination of knits and purls, and it creates a stunning leaf-like design that resembles the leaves of a sycamore tree.
Tassel Stitch
The sections look like, you guessed it Tassels! This was fun! Only a couple of rows that take a little more effort, out of the 12 row pattern repeat.
Triple Eyelet Stitch
It’s such a sweet stitch! Using this on a delicate shawl or wrap would be lovely.
Tumbling Moss Block Stitch
I love this stitch pattern! It's fun to knit and it looks great!
Tunisian Rib Stitch
How I love the look of this stitch! You know the satisfied feeling, when stitches make your "knitter's heart" sing!
Wide Basketweave Stitch
The wide basketweave stitch would make a lovely blanket design.
Wide Chevron Zigzag Stitch
It would be a really cool stitch for a throw.
Window Stitch
Zigzag Stitch
I like the crossing of the dropped slipped stitches. Doing this stitch builds confidence for rearranging stitches and "dropping stitches."
Putting It All Together
I'm sewing together the swatches I've created that are different textured stitches. It's a little difficult because the swatches aren't all the same size!
The ends need to be woven in and then my blanket using up the textured stitch swatches will be complete!
It has some weight to it, so I hope it will provide comfort for someone's lap. :)
ll the ends are now sewn in! My textured stitches swatch lap blanket is wonky to be sure, but considering they were all different sized swatches, it's not too bad.
When placed over an armchair or a couch it won't be as noticeable.
I gifted the lap blanket and the book to some lovely friends I’d made in Chiang Mai before I left. They truly appreciated them both.
A warm glow enters my body when my craft is appreciated by others!