Yesterday, I introduced my knitting project for the week, I’m making the Holland Cowl pattern by UNIVERSAL YARN. So, now that I’ve got my Mystical Marl yarn and the pattern, let’s properly dig into the colorwork part of the pattern.
After you cast on, you work 20 rounds of slipped-stitch colorwork. This is very similar to Mosaic Knitting, though, unlike in Mosaic Knitting, your current yarn changes with every round instead of every other round.
Easy Slip Stitch Colorwork for the Holland Cowl using Mystical Marl yarn
This meant that the Holland Cowl made for an absolutely amazing train trip knitting, because I only have to think of one colour at a time! Whatever color you’re working with, you simply slip the stitches of the other colour purlwise. No fuss, no having to look at the pattern, it was great!
However, I did have one bad habit that started to creep in. Because I was in that meditative zone where I can knit without needing to pay too much attention, sometimes, I’d start to knit the next stitch in the round, only to find out that it was a stitch I should have been slipping. I’d have to catch myself -before- I accidentally twisted the stitch in question or remember to make sure they were untwisted when I tinked back a stitch or two!
Slipped Stitch colorwork and Mosaic Knitting are something I very much enjoy because it’s a lot easier to knit when you only have to wrangle one strand of yarn per round. Who’d have thought! And this particular set up of slipped stitch color work makes for a great edge to the cowl – it reminded me of ribbing, without the color distortions that can happen if you try to do colorwork in ribbing.
Mystical Marl yarn in Lagoon and Midnight – both colors contrast well in the slip stitch colorwork of the Holland Cowl pattern
The other concern I had here was my color choices. Because the Mystical Marl in Lagoon was my background color, one of the concerns I had was how well it would contrast with the Midnight colorway for the foreground.
It’s always a bit of a guess when you’re ordering yarn online. Every computer display handles color a little bit differently, so what you’re seeing on your laptop display might be slightly different than on your phone, which might be slightly different, yet again, when it comes to the actual color of the yarn, and I was a tiny bit worried the Lagoon might be more gray than it looked on my screen. But, once I had a few rounds of slip stitch colorwork knit up, that worry was completely abated.
But, I wasn’t out of trouble quite yet. It’s not just contrast; you also have to be careful when it comes to colorwork knitting. You’ve also got to be mindful of the tension difference between your background and foreground colors. While this isn’t a problem in the slipped stitch colorwork, it becomes an issue when you get into stranded colorwork – but don’t worry, I’ll show you all about stranded colorwork and color dominance in the Holland Cowl pattern tomorrow! Join me!
There are so many more lovely colors to explore in UY Mystical Marl.
