Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe the time has come to introduce you to the penultimate Confident Knitting pattern, but it’s true! And oh, do I think you’re going to enjoy this one. What better way to see in the new year than with some fun and funky new cushions to jazz up your living room? I’m very pleased to introduce you to the Saturnus Cushions, designed by the amazing Jimenez Joseph! And these beautiful cushions let us explore the exciting world of grab stitches!
With the Saturnus Cushions, Jimi has brought us not one but two designs that manipulate knitted fabric in fun and unexpected ways. The blue-gray sample explores what happens when you “grab” stitches from several rows below across multiple stitches, resulting in a right side that gently undulates. The orange sample, by contrast, shows off what a single grab stitch looks like on a reverse stocking stitch background. I think you’ll agree that both are simply stunning — choose your favourite, or make both!
Grab stitches are a really fun way to add surface texture to your knitting. To work them, you simply “grab” a purl bump from several rows below and work it with your current stitch. Once you get the hang of it, there’s a lovely rhythm to working this way. And grab stitches are also infinitely customisable — after you’ve learned the skill, you can adapt them to add fabulous textures to your knitted items.
Grab stitches work especially well with hand-dyed yarn — the texture adds interest to your project, while still allowing the subtle variations of expertly dyed yarn to shine! Lola of Third Vault Yarns has dreamed up two beautiful colourways on her Caroline DK base for Jimi’s Saturnus Cushions …. we love the water-like quality of the blue-grey colourway, and the cheery and bright orange! Both are available as part of our Confident Knitting Winter Kits. You can browse more of Lola’s stunning colourways on her website. You’ll need two 115 gram skeins for this project.
Confident Knitting Winter collection.
And of course, our January Confident Knitting knitalong kicks off today over in The Knitalong Hub — we can’t wait to explore the big world of grab stitches with you! Whether you’re planning to cast on the Saturnus Cushions or try out grab stitches on another project, you’re very welcome. And if you’d like to join the fun but haven’t yet gotten your copy of Confident Knitting, you can of course find it in the online shop. As always, you’ll find this month’s video tutorials on grab stitches over on our YouTube channel, along with a bonus tutorial on seaming up your pillows. Happy grabbing!