I am completely in love with rainbow yarn!

I love rainbows. I want to knit everything in rainbows.

But I’ve been asked… what pattern do you use? I’m not seeing a lot of patterns with stripes!

Well, let me tell you: you can knit almost any pattern in stripes! I’m going to share my tips with you, and show off a darling little sweater as an example!

Tips for knitting almost any pattern in stripes!

This adorable little sweater is Gramps by Tin Can Knits, and the sample is in two colors, not stripes. But no worries!

Here are some tips!

• Calculate your yarn usage (total amount of yarn divided by the number of colors you have) to make sure you have enough yarn of each color. You can supplement with one ‘main’ color (as I’ve done for the collar)
• Select a pattern that’s fairly simple, like stockinette. For example, a lace pattern would get lost in the stripes.
• Change colors at the end of a row (and not the middle) for the cleanest stripes.
• Keep in mind that changing colors on a purl row will create a bump of color, so aim for a changing on a knit row.
• A ‘make 1 increase’ draws up yarn from the previous round, so avoid changing colors on this type of increase. For the sweater below, I started a new color on rows that were just plain knit.
• Read the pattern in advance to plan out the number of rows each color should be to avoid the increases/purls/etc mentioned above.

Have fun! There’s no right or wrong way to do it!

I like to organize my stripes in color order (all rainbow-like), but it would be equally awesome for you to plan your colors randomly. Or have different stripe widths. There are no rules!