Excerpt from Bargello Knits

When developing bargello knitting, I wanted to move beyond design elements to creating an entire fabric. I shuddered at the thought of the vast number of intarsia columns I would need for a wide piece of fabric, but pushed through. I was about 10 inches above the cast on, working with 42 yarns simultaneously, when I reached my limit. There had to be a better way. That is when I remembered seeing a linked seam in Elise Duvekot’s book Knit One Below (XRX, Inc., 2008), used to join cast on and bind off edges. I translated this technique to side edges with waste yarn, divided the 42 segments into four separate sections and successfully created a wide piece of fabric. I could not decide if the final piece would be a skirt or a wrap so I made it serve as both garments.

Pattern notes
The main body section of this project is an allover fabric of 37 to 46 bargello segments worked in 4 sections then linked together. The hem and ribbing are added after constructing the main body section. Cast on, edge segments, and last 6 rows with bind off are worked with separate lengths of waste yarn. The waste yarn “borders” must be kept separate from one another because each
border is removed at a different point in the project. The pattern is easily adjusted for other sizes by working more bargello segments, increasing the overlap, lengthening or shortening the base rectangle and changing the height of the ribbing. The 100% wool yarn will full (felt slightly) as the garment is worn, enhancing
the look of the fabric.