Breuer Runner & Framed Piece in Rowan Cotton Glace - Downloadable PDF

Breuer Runner & Framed Piece in Rowan Cotton Glacé – Pattern Summary

What Is Being Made

This downloadable PDF pattern by Martin Storey presents two sophisticated home accessory projects: a table runner and a framed decorative piece, both worked in Rowan Cotton Glacé. These are flat, geometric knitted textiles designed to bring bold colour and artisan craft into the home. The framed piece in particular makes a striking wall display, while the runner is a functional yet decorative addition to a dining or console table. Both projects share the same colourwork design language, making them ideal companions within a coordinated interior scheme.

Skill Level & Who This Pattern Is For

This pattern is rated advanced, making it best suited to experienced knitters who are comfortable managing multiple colours simultaneously, working precise colourwork charts, and executing a neat mitered edging. The complexity of the colourwork and the finishing requirements mean this is not recommended as a first colourwork project, but it offers a deeply rewarding challenge for confident knitters looking to create a heirloom-quality piece.

Techniques Used

• Stranded colourwork / Fair Isle-style knitting – the pattern uses multiple yarn colours across rows to build up its geometric design, requiring careful tension management to keep the fabric flat and even.
• Mitered corner edging – a key finishing technique in which stitches are picked up around the entire perimeter of the knitted piece and worked in the round. Corner stitches are individually marked with coloured thread and treated as central mitre points, creating sharp, professional 45-degree corners.
• Working in the round – the edging is completed using a circular needle, requiring the knitter to join and work continuously around the piece rather than back and forth in rows.
• Picking up and knitting stitches – the edging begins by picking up a precise number of stitches along each edge and corner of the main fabric, totalling 1,020 stitches in all, a process that demands accuracy to ensure the edging lies flat.
• Pressing and blocking – the making-up instructions specify pressing as described on the information page, which is essential with cotton yarn to set the stitches and achieve a crisp, flat finish appropriate for a home accessory.

Stitches Used

• Knit stitch – the foundation of the flat colourwork fabric panels.
• Stocking stitch – implied by the structure of the colourwork and the pressing instructions.
• Edging stitch pattern – worked in rounds following the pick-up round, with mitered shaping at each of the four marked corner stitches.

Yarn – Rowan Cotton Glacé

Rowan Cotton Glacé is a lightweight DK weight mercerised cotton yarn, sold in 50g balls, known for its subtle sheen, smooth texture, and excellent stitch definition — qualities that make it particularly well suited to colourwork and flat decorative pieces. The pattern calls for seven colours, used in varying quantities:

• A – Ochre 833: 3 balls
• B – Black 727: 3 balls
• C – Winsor 849: 3 balls
• D – Persimmon 832: 2 balls
• E – Rose 861: 5 balls
• F – Dijon 739: 4 balls (also used for the edging pick-up round)
• G – Blood Orange 445: 3 balls

The palette is warm and richly toned, combining earthy ochres and dijon with vivid persimmon, blood orange, and rose, grounded by black — a combination that reflects a bold, Bauhaus-inspired aesthetic entirely in keeping with the Breuer name.

Needles Required

• 1 pair of 3¼mm (UK No. 10 / US 3) straight needles – for working the main flat fabric panels.