Short-Row Colorwork Knitting

Woolly Wormhead is a full-time independent knitwear designer best known for their hat patterns that use unique constructions. Woolly publishes individual patterns and eBook collections that have sold upwards of 10,000 copies. They are also an experienced teacher both in person and virtually.

Every now and again a technique comes along that, although like all knitting it is founded on tried-and-tested methods, seems to be completely new – and shortrow colourwork is one of those. This intriguing way of creating stripes, motifs, geometric designs and much more is so clever that it made my head hurt a little just to think about it – thank goodness Woolly Wormhead has done all the work for us and we only need to cast on and follow their well-thought-out instructions. There are 50 short-row colourwork patterns to choose from, each described both in writing and in chart form, with a very clearly photographed example of the actual knitting. They are all worked in garter stitch, and it’s brilliant to see such clear colourwork in this gloriously squishy fabric. The collection includes both individual motifs worked back and forth and repeatable ones worked in the round. You’ll be itching to get this new way of knitting on the needles, and thankfully there are 10 accessory patterns showing them in practice. These include shawls, mitts, hats and scarves and are by both Woolly and other contributing designers including Lola Johnson of Third Vault Yarns, Karie Westermann and Carol Feller. The book also includes a section about how to design using the motifs, in case you want to adapt things to your own style.