The Ins and Outs of Woven Spot Stitch

Like most knitters, I love a great hand-painted skein. But it can be hard to find just the right project that does the watercolor hues justice. The woven spot stitch that Mary Lou Egan chose for her Montana Mittens makes perfect use of a variegated yarn. Let me walk you through it.

Woven Spot Stitch

Mary Lou used a motif with a four-round repeat—two rounds are stockinette and two rounds are “woven” by moving the working yarn in front of and behind stitches. Super easy! This creates a great balance between ground fabric and the woven elements. Color mixing from the variegated yarn is then shifting between the knitted ground stitches and the punctuated woven bars that appear on the right side of the fabric.

Learn the woven spot stitch with Kate—it's easy and fun!

Montana Mittens—and Mitts!

The mitten pattern (linked below) also includes instructions for a fingerless mitt version. I love knitting mitts during the summer. They are small, portable, and such a great project for gifting to those I’m traveling to see during the warm months.

Kate's mitts in the Lupine colorway.

We only photographed the mitten version for the pattern instructions (link to the pattern below), so I decided to knit the mitt version to share with you here.

Well.

The hardest part was picking a colorway from Mountain Colors on their Montana base. So, I asked owner Nicole Gilcher if she would send me several colorways to share with you here. They all create very different results—and I love them all!

Kate worked with three colorways: (from left) Northwind, Peppergrass, and Lupine.