High Contrast, the tutorials

There are three crucial skills required for the High Contrast blanket. They are above and beyond a beginner's repertoire, so the pattern is classified "intermediate".

But that's a bit misleading, as these new skills are easy to learn and High Contrast is a great pattern to learn them on. Here's what you'll need to complete the blanket:

- tubular cast on
- doubleknit for the main body of the blanket
- grafting cast off using kitchener stitch

The pattern has some resources and explanations of the three skills, but I'll add some information and tutorial links here so you can have a more thorough background. So first of all...

Tubular Cast On

This is a method of casting on that uses the backward loop method to provisionally create the cast on edge. You complete a few rows in stockinette stitch, then fold the fabric up, remove the waste yarn stitch by stitch and incorporate the provisional stitches as the purl stitches for the doubleknit fabric.

Knitty has a better explanation with photos here. The result is a seamless, double-layered edge that doesn't restrict the stretch of the blanket.

Doubleknit

I'm currently geeking out on doubleknit, as it is so easy, but looks much harder than the skill actually is.

In essence, doubleknitting is creating two pieces of stockinette fabric in different yarns simultaneously, both WSs facing each other. Each doubleknit stitch is a pair of one knit, then one purl. The trick is that both strands of yarn travel between each stitch.

On the RS, this means: with both yarns held in back, knit MC into the first stitch, then bring both yarns forward and purl CC into the second stitch.

On the WS, this means: with both yarns held in back, knit CC into the first stitch, then bring both yarns forward and purl MC into the second stitch.

There's also some additional work to do on doubleknit edging to make sure the fabric doesn't pull apart. The High Contrast pattern has full details. For more doubleknit talk, check out a recommended Twist Collective post here.

Grafting Cast Off Using Kitchener Stitch

Kitchener stitch has always frustrated me. It creates a nice finish, but I can never remember the order of the stitches. So I confess to having a cheat sheet that I repeatedly refer to while doing kitchener...

High tech to the max

The goal of a grafting cast off is the same as the tubular cast on: to create a double-layered, seamless edge that gives when stretched.

The High Contrast patten (buy here!) goes into detail about how to set up for the cast off. After that, you use kitchener stitch, which you can read more about here and watch a video here.

That's about it! Happy stitching and remember to add your project to the Ravelry pattern so that I can see your FOs. Taters says thanks!