Mosaic Knitting, High Contrast - Low Contrast, Why?

Have you knit mosaic style knitting before? Mosaic knitting is a form of color work knitting that only requires you to work with one color at a time. This technique utilizes slip stitches to make the picture/pattern you want to show. 

Mosaic can be an amazing way to show off motifs or play with color but how do you really make it shine? Contrast. Contrast is how you make mosaic knitting shine and really show off the colors you're working with. 

Above are two swatches that show basic mosaic stitches. Just a slip one, knit one technique. Below you will be able to see them in black and white and show how different the contrasts are between the color choices. 

Can you believe the difference?! You can use your camera settings on your cellphone and see your swatches in black and white. Using black and white photography shows the color values of the yarn and how high and/or low the contrast of your colors are. The top swatch is the green and cream combo, the bottom swatch is the black and red. The cream/green is high contrast and the black/red is low contrast. 

When picking yarn for your mosaic piece this black and white camera function can easily show you which combo is best for your pattern. 

You definitely don't have to follow any sort of rule when picking your mosaic yarns. If you prefer a lower contrast combo that is 100% okay! My new shawl sample is definitely on the lower end of contrast vs high, it's what I prefer, and your knitting should be about you! 

Along with contrast in yarns you can also difficulty levels for mosaic knitting. The swatches all featured above are simple slips and knits without difficult patterns or charts to follow. The swatch below was knitted from a mosaic chart and is slightly more complicated previous swatches shown. 

Can you even believe that the bottom swatch only uses one color per row! Mosaic is a fun and different technique than other color works but still leads to really cool results. 

I hope this overview of mosaic makes you more confident to give those patterns a try! All Knit Up patterns that include mosaic are Monticello and Little Bits, take a look at these lovely shawls and give them a try! 

Happy Knitting -- Sierra