Rainbow Views

Lighthouse near Seattle

Let's Knit Rainbows!

When I moved to western Washington from the more temperate mid-western U.S., I discovered how many more rainbows there are in rainy places! Lots of double rainbows, too. We have frequent "sunbreaks" which are just what they sound like: in the midst of a rainy day, the sun comes out for a few minutes (or a few hours) and often produces a delightful rainbow or two. 

Mike Elam, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

How about horizontal rainbows? Although  hate to concede that Portland has anything up on Seattle, the finest rainbow viewing I've ever experienced was in Oregon, not Washington. There I saw my first horizontal rainbow among many in the eastern sky one beautiful afternoon.


I found a little rainbow patch design on ravelry.com by Kristin Virén. It had a few errors that I have corrected. Use whatever yarn you want on whatever needles you want. (Yay!) If you want to felt it, use larger needles and real wool yarn that is not superwash. My felted rainbow below is about 3 inches wide; the unfelted one is 3 1/2 inches wide.Very quick and easy—my kind of project. The instructions have you starting with purple at the bottom because that is the actual real rainbow sequence, but I made one with blue at the bottom anyway because I like the way it looks.

Both rainbows were knit on #3 needles.
The smaller rainbow was felted.

Rainbow Patch
Note: Knit all yo's through back loop.
CO 12 stitches (purple).
Row 1: K4 *yo, K4* (14 stitches)

Row 2: (blue) K2 *yo, K5* yo K2 (17 stitches)
Row 3 and every following odd row: Knit
Row 4: (green) *K4, yo* K5 (20 stitches)
Row 6: (yellow) K2  *yo, K4* yo K2 (25 stitches)
Row 8: (orange) K5 *yo, K5* (29 stitches)
Row 10: (red) K4 *yo, K5* (34  stitches)
Bind off.
Weave in ends.



 I also adapted a knitted heart shape from naturalsuburbia@blogspot.com to sport rainbow colors. These patterns, though borrowed, are both so short that I include them in full in order to make my changes clear. 

Rainbow Heart
Cast on 2 stitches in purple.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: KFB on both ends of this knit row. (4 stitches)
Rows 3-6: Repeat rows 1 and 2, cut purple.
Attach red, repeat rows 1 and 2 for 4 rows, cut red.
Rows 7-10: Attach orange, repeat rows 1 and 2 for 4 rows, cut orange.
Rows 11-14: Attach yellow, repeat rows 1 and 2, knit 2 rows, cut yellow.
Rows 15, 16, 17: 
Attach green, knit 3 rows.
Rows 18-end on first side:
k 8 stitches, turn (the remaining stitches can stay on the needle or you can put them on a stitch holder). Cut green.
Attach blue, k 2 tog, k4, k 2 tog, turn (6 stitches on your working needle)
knit row, turn
k2 tog, k 2, k 2 tog, turn (4 stitches on your working needle)
k, turn
k 2 tog, k 2 tog, turn (2 stitches on your working needle)
cast off blue.
Rows 18-end on second side:
Attach green yarn to remaining 8 stitches on other needle.Repeat first side.  
Weave in ends. Felt if desired.


Recently President Obama pronounced June GLBT (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transexual) month and I thought I would create a rainbow bracelet in support of tolerance. Some of my favorite people are members of the gay/lesbian community, and their right to the pursuit of happiness is important to me.

Volume 2

I designed this bracelet using a 4-row slip stitch pattern labeled Moss slip stitch in Volume 2 of the Harmony Guides.  At first I thought I would never be able to take my eyes off the pattern instructions, but before long I had it memorized and fell into a comfortable rhythm. I love doing slip stitch patterns. They look so intricate and I'm never exactly sure what the result will look like with different color combinations.


Slip Stitch Bracelet
Moss slip stitch:

Row 1: *K 1, slip 1* K1

Row 2: *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K1

Row 1: K1 *K 1, slip 1* K2

Row 4: K1 *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K2

Cast on 35 (or any odd number-I have small hands and wrists) stitches.

Work the first 2 rows in purple, rows 3 and 4 in red, rows 5 and 6 in orange, 7 and 8 in yellow, 9 and 10 in green and 11 and 12 in blue.
Row 1: *K 1, slip 1* K1
Row 2: *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K1
Row 1: K1 *K 1, slip 1* K2
Row 4: K1 *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K2
Row 1: *K 1, slip 1* K1
Row 2: *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K1
Row 1: K1 *K 1, slip 1* K2
Row 4: K1 *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K2
Row 1: *K 1, slip 1* K1
Row 2: *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K1
Row 1: K1 *K 1, slip 1* K2
Row 4: K1 *K 1,yarn forward, slip 1,yarn back* K2
Weave in ends and stitch the two ends together. Voila!




I used 6 colors of worsted wool that I had lying around (I refer you to Exhibit A to the right.) It might work better in a cotton or bamboo blend to show cleaner stitch definition. It knits up very quickly, and the only problem I ran into was how to seam it together to match perfectly and avoid bulk. I weaved in one of  the 2 tail ends of each color yarn as I knit, then used the other yarn tail of that color to attach to the other side. To "block" it, I wet it thoroughly, squeezed most of the water out, and gently stretched it around a glass that was about the right size. No, you are not seeing things, the bracelet on my wrist is the first one I made, the one on the glass a second one that has the rainbow colors in slightly different order.


Want a really simple one? Use cheap variegated acrylic yarn (thank you Red Heart) to knit an icord of 4-6 stitches for, oh, 14-16 inches or so. If you are clever like me, you will end with the color you began with so that you can sew the ends together invisibly. Twist and double it and slide it onto your wrist. 

Instant rainbow!

Extreme Knits
This section of my post is dedicated to sharing examples of extreme knitting that make me wonder about the designer's sanity. This unusual knitting project was designed and carried out by a highly crazy creative knitter, Kelly Griffith for Knitty Magazine. Can you believe someone knitted an umbrella?

Too bad she didn't use rainbow colors. I'd be on it like white on rice.