Basketweave Intarsia

The next knitting design theme I will present is what I call "Basketweave Intarsia". Now I know some people say that nothing in knitting is really ever new, but I do have to say I came up with this on my own, and I have never seen anyone else with a design incorporating this technique. This being said, I am sure people will come up with many references--but I welcome that if it's the case!

What I did was take the basketweave stitch and turn it into intarsia. There are a number of stitches I have seen which can make knitting look woven, but what I am talking about here is alternating a series of knit and purl stitches on one side and all knit stitch on the other side (the all knit side turns out to be the front or right side with this stitch pattern). So on the right side, some squares are stockinette stitch and the other squares are garter stitch. Then I used one yarn or colorway for the garter squares and a different one for the stockinette squares, so each square is an intarsia block.

This first design is the "other" scarf design I submitted to Vogue Knitting Magazine along with the one that appeared on the cover. It is called the "Diamond Scarf" and is in VK Winter 2003/04 and also in the book "Vogue Knitting Accessorize". The scarf is knit in Noro Kureyon (okay so I had a little Kureyon obsession--I promise the next design won't use any...) working off two different skeins, with bobbins made and used in the order they came off the skeins. Each skein was used exclusively either for garter or stockinette squares. So that added to the woven look. For extra complication, it was also started with one square, knit on the bias, adding and subtracting squares as needed to achieve the jagged edges.

Just as an aside, after the magazine came out, my mom went to a friend's house and found someone there she knew making this scarf. The woman, who knew my mom, had no idea that I was the designer. Small world!