I fell in love with this pattern/yarn combination when Sweet T Knits herself came to Yarnivore for a trunk show… lush! Had to finish up some UFOs while I dreamed of casting on, all fabulous motivation to finish! :D In the meantime, I couldn’t help putting together other color combos so am adding those pics in here, just in case you need some inspiration!

Tricks Needed:

1. Beginner Basics: cast on, knit, bind off.
2. Increase: kfb - knit front & back in the same stitch so that 1 stitch becomes 2.
3. Decrease: k2tog - knit 2 stitches together, resulting in 1 stitch.
4. Slipping end stitches, aka I-cord edge. On one side you knit the end stitch, and on the other side, you slip the stitch with yarn on the wrong side. This forces the end stitch to face out, making for a decorative edge.
5. Switching colors between rows & carrying the non working color up the back (twisting it with the working color every time you come to it so it doesn’t hang loose)
6. Dropped stitches - done in 2 steps. You first wrap the needle around the yarn 3 times while knitting the stitche, then, on the next pass, you knit into the stitch once, letting the 3 wraps unfurl.
7. Blocking, which means soaking 9getting it wet), squeezing, rolling (both to remove as much water as possible, but don’t wring) and then laying out your work.

Working Notes:

1. Color choices for C1, C2: I wanted the multicolored Sunset (seriously eye catching) for the dropped stitch portion so I used the tonal darkest blue-purple of Only the Shadow Knows for the cast on.
2. Pattern is well written and relatively simple, so simple that I have to keep my mind from wandering off… this is where strategic use of stitch markers helps: I put 2 markers on the right side, just after the 1st stitch and before the kfb. Placing 2 here means you will have warning to pay attention and you will not have to move them as you increase. Note that I use 2 here to indicate the end that you increase (get it, 2 for the 2 stitches in kfb?). I then placed 1 at the other end, between the end stitch and the k2tog (ws). Again, this placement won’t require you to move it around as you decrease and it’s a reminder that you’re decreasing (1 stitch remains after the k2tog). Doing this has helped me consistently do the increases & decreases.
3. As the project grows, you’ll note the work curves over to one side.This is due to the increase/decrease pattern. Don’t worry if the selvedges feel tight - it’s not meant to straighten all the way. :D
4. Most yarns won’t bleed but, because this project is 2 colors and because their glory lies in the contrast, I took an extra step to make sure they didn’t bleed into each other when I blocked them. I cut off long pieces of each color, put them in two separate cups of nearly boiling hot water and added a paper towel piece. If the dye was going to bleed, now would be the time…. and, colors held, no bleeding. Sweet! If they had bled, I would have spray blocked (spray with water, not soak).
5. While the project is on your needles. It won’t seem very big. However, after blocking, it opens up and is large enough for my frame. I’m about a size 14 so larger folks may want to grab a 2nd skein of the multicolor. Smaller folks will be fine with 1. Note that I used all but a few grams of my multi colored skein. I chose to hang my Van Gogh to dry, suspending it from a hanger, so that it would stretch more….this is way easier than pinning to a flat surface but you sacrifice some control since gravity only works in one direction……