Jewel Square

JEWEL SQUARE

Using DK yarn you will need about 16g of background colour, 3g of jewel colour, and a small amount of a darker shade for the jewel outline.

The jewel shape can be worked either by the Intarsia or Fair Isle methods. Alternatively you could just do the main jewel shape this way and embroider the outline on afterwards by the Swiss Darning technique.

Using 4mm needles and DK yarn, cast on 43 stitches in background colour.

First row:  (K1, p1) repeat to last stitch, k1.

Repeat this row 9 times to form 10 rows of moss stitch.

*Next row: (k1,p1) 4 times, knit 27, (p1, k1) 4 times.

Next row: (k1,p1) 4 times, purl 27, (p1, k1) 4 times.

Repeat these 2 rows twice more.*

Row 1: (k1,p1) 4 times, knit 3, knit the first row of the jewel chart (below) in your chosen colours,

 knit 3, (p1, k1) 4 times.

Row 2: (k1,p1) 4 times, purl 3, purl the second row of the jewel chart, purl 3, (p1, k1) 4 times.

Continue like this until you have worked all 28 rows of the jewel chart, maintaining the moss stitch border throughout.

In background colour only, repeat the 6 rows from * to * as above.

Work 10 rows moss stitch.

Cast off knitwise, but not too tightly.

Darn in the ends from the jewel colours neatly on the back, taking care not to distort the work on the front. It’s OK to make small reef knots, as this is not a garment, but do not cut yarn close to knots, because they always come undone sooner or later!

(As a variation you could also make the top edge of the shape in the outline colour, but either way looks good depending on the choice of colours)