Materials

• Adriafil Genziana, shade Olive (63)
• Adriafil Merino Cotone, shade Pine Green (42)
• Adriafil Sierra Andina, shade Grass Green (36)
• Rowan Kidsilk Haze, shades Olive (721) & Drab (611)
• Knitting Needles: 1 pair 2.5mm, 1 pair 3.25mm, 1 pair 3.5mm

Tension 25 stitches & 40 rows = 10 cm using Olive (63) and Olive (721) held together for stocking stitch knitted on 3.25mm needles.

Finished size 18 x 18cm / 7 x 7 inches

Project notes

I’m really delighted with this square. I wanted it to mimic the look and feel of the living privet BLM letters, carved from the hedge in 2020 and still maintained (see pic in pattern). It took a long time to get the green shades just right, and the dancing mohair gives it an organic feel.

This is a tough piece of intarsia. There are points where you might have 10 bobbins in play across a 7-inch square plus a long piece of yarn for the B holes (no point using a bobbin). Added to that, the two colours are close and both are comprised of two strands, one a mohair. Phew! Several actions can help ease the complexity:

• Weave in loose ends as soon you can, perhaps after just two rows, otherwise they create noise when you are reaching for the correct bobbin.
• Don’t let the bobbins unravel, park each one before you move on to the next, using the notch in the bobbin. Be disciplined.
• If the two strands wound around a bobbin go out of sync, take care not to feed that difference into the knitting. Instead, smooth them towards the bobbin. If it becomes problematic, cut the yarn, smooth out the difference and reintroduce the yarn.
• Take it slooooooow.
• If you haven’t knitted intarsia before, this would be a difficult first project. But YouTube is always your friend.
• Use completely different yarns. If you don’t need to suggest greenery, you can do anything. The square could be vibrant with contrasting colours and there’s no need for a mohair strand if you’re not trying to suggest living material. A lot of the complexity would disappear.

When you come to the middle section of stranded colourwork, make use of existing loaded bobbins for each knitted shade.

Using the right needles:

• Garter stitch sections are knitted on 2.5mm needles
• Intarsia sections are knitted on 3.25mm needles
• The stranded colourwork section is knitted on 3.5mm needles.