Bubble Wrap Stitch

A few years ago I saw a photo of this stitch on Pinterest and got intrigued by the incredible texture. The photo showed a blanket that was clearly machine knit, and of course, there were no knitting instructions or even hints provided. 

In most cases, machine knit stitches can be recreated in hand knitting, so I’ve got to swatching testing different ways that I hoped would create the texture of this stitch. 

None of those ways was good enough, and after a few hours of swatching, I reluctantly abandoned the idea to recreate this stitch 🙁

My luck changed quite recently when I spotted a different photo of this same stitch on Pinterest (now you know where I spend hours of my time :-)), but this time there were some knitting instructions in that pin. 

It turned out that the instructions were in Turkish, and with the help of Google Translate I tried to figure out what they were. If you ever tried to translate knitting instructions in Google (no offense to Google Translate, it’s a great tool in most cases), you know how funny and gibberish-y the translation can be. 

So I didn’t get the exact instructions, but I did get the general idea of how to make this texture, something I could build upon, something to test and adjust. 

And now, with many thanks to an unknown to me Turkish knitter (the link to that pin was broken and didn’t lead anywhere), I am happy to share with you a very interesting stitch with an amazing 3D texture that looks very much like bubble wrap.

This stitch is fully reversible and highly textured. You can tell from the photo below that it truly has three dimensions. That makes it perfect for cosy blankets, scarves and cowls.

For best results, use smaller needles. To make the swatches shown in these photos I used DK yarn and 4mm (US6) needles. The look of the fabric would have probably been even better if I used 3.75mm (US5) or even 3.5mm (US4) needles. But I was too happy to eventually get the texture I was looking for, so I decided to keep the swatches as they are.

Now that we have the supplies sorted out, let’s get to knitting. 

Experiment with this stitch and let me know about your experience.

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The full step-by-step photo tutorial about this method, is a part of the Knitting Collection #1. Once you order your copy of this collection, you will instantly receive a “big PDF” (190 pages!) with this and 22 other tutorials included in the collection.

You will also receive two e-books and six knitting patterns as a special bonus, so go ahead and get it all right now before you forget 😊

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