The homework for the March City and Guilds class was on smocked knitting, something I had never tried before.

My first sample involved knitting a sample of k1, p1 rib, and then working the smocking afterwards.

The next two samples came from patterns in Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. With both of these the smocking is knitted in as you go along.

This first pattern is just called smocking.

The second is called variation smocking. Unfortunately I chose a yarn which doesn’t show the pattern terrible well again 🙁

These were fun to do but I’m not sure whether I would use them in future knitting projects. The variation smocking is more delicate, but the other two make really quite a firm and thick fabric which limits its uses. They might make good tea cosy fabric, since they would be very well insulating, and a bit of a change from other tea cosy patterns.