Tiling Butterfly

As my Tiling Fish and On the Shore designs, this patchwork blanket is featuring one of Dutch grafic artist M. C. Escher´s awe-inspiring famous tessellations (tessellation 70).

The butterflies are knit separately and then sewn together. Finally the edges are cut straight and embellished with an attached I-cord edging. Amazingly, when cutting, there won´t be any body parts of the butterflies wasted. Instead, you will find that top and bottom can be joined to a tube. That tube will be cut length-wise. Repeat for both sides and there it is: the blanket is perfectly rectangular!

The butterflies are shaped using different increases and decreases as well as short rows and several knitting atterns (linen stitch, stocking stitch, garter ribs and bobbles). The pattern is charted, so you need to be familiar with working from a chart to knit this blanket. The techniques used are explained in a detailed illustrated appendix. So don´t you worry. This pattern might look difficult - but it really is not. And each step is explained in the tutorials. This includes the seams and cutting/steeking.

The sample was knit in Holst Garn 100% Supersoft Uld. A substitute yarn is shown below.