Checking out Stitch Maps

If you were around the knitting Internet (yes, there is such a place) at the end of last week or over the weekend you may have already heard about Stitch Maps, a new project by knitting chart enthusiast J. C. Briar. Briar’s book (which I have read but somehow failed to actually review) Charts Made Simple is a really good book for teaching how to use knitting charts of all sorts.

Briar is clearly a visual thinker and knitter, and she has taken visual representations of knitting even further with her latest project.

If you look at that picture up there, which is a version of Feather and Fan, you might think that it looks like a crochet chart. And it does. Crochet charts have always been a more literal visual representation of the work, because it’s difficult to symbolize the difference between, say, a double crochet and a half-double crochet any other way.

But knitting charts have always been flat, I guess because stockinette stitch is flat, or because whoever started charting knitting didn’t think to make the chart look like knitting.

J. C. Briar did. And the result is a little jarring if you’re a knitter, but still pretty darn cool. And it’s actually really logical, because the map can show, for instance, the curving of the Feather and Fan pattern, and how two stitches from the previous row come together in a knit 2 together on this row.

I don’t know if this sort of stitch mapping will catch on, because it also takes up a lot more space in print, and I imagine it might be difficult to represent different sizes of garments on the same chart. But for simply charting out stitch patterns, it’s very cool and I look forward to playing with it some more.

What do you think about stitch maps as opposed to more traditional knitting charts? Would you ever knit from one?

[Photo via Stitch Maps.]

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

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