Fusion Knitting and the Honeycomb Conjecture Blanket

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to be a part of Melissa Leapman’s virtual knitting retreat to Canada. Through that experience, I stumbled upon the work of knitwear designer Mary W Martin. She has been developing incredible resources, tutorials, and knitwear patterns for reversible knitting techniques called “fusion knitting” and “fission knitting”.

Fusion knitting is a reversible knitting technique where two cabled fabrics are merged together into one cloth. Basically, you knit one side of the fabric with colour A, knitting the cables on that side but slipping the stitches that would be used for the cable on the other side. Then when you turn your work, you use colour B to knit the cables on the second side and slip the stitches that were used in the cable for the first side. So it’s almost like a combination of mosaic knitting and cable knitting. The “ground” fabric features alternating rows of colour A and colour B. It’s like the fabric of colour A and colour B have been interspersed or fused together.

Fission knitting is a different kind of reversible knitting technique. The ground fabric is formed by holding two strands of yarn together. This creates a marled, “held-together” combination in the knitted fabric. Then the cables are formed by splitting the marled yarns and using either colour to knit the cables.

Mary has designed projects which feature colourwork cables on both the front and the back of a knitted fabric. The knitted cables pop out from the background. Using these knitting techniques, Mary’s designs look like they have leaves, swirls, flowers, and other motifs drawn in linework. It’s fascinating to see!

Learning about Fusion Knitting

I’ve never tried the Fusion Knitting technique, so Mary suggested I knit a swatch using some DK-weight yarn. I decided to use our SweetGeorgia Yarns BFL+Silk DK yarn in Cayenne and Mulberry to give the technique a try. I know we discontinued our Cayenne colourway, but Campfire is pretty darn close, if you’re looking for a replacement.

My swatch was basically a mini version of the Honeycomb Conjecture scarf pattern. As you can see, my selvedges are ripe with cut ends of yarn. Mary designed the scarf to be knit along the long side of the scarf. You cast on the number of stitches required to produce the length of the scarf. Then knit until you have the width of the scarf that you would like. At the same time, at the end of each row, cut your working yarn in order to create automatic fringe at the short ends of the scarf. Then you occasionally pause to knot the loose ends together so that the scarf doesn’t unravel.

Knitting the cables using a twisted knit stitch helps to define the line work and keep the cables very dimensional. The two colours are clearly alternating in purlwise garter stitch throughout the background of the cloth. Basically, you are alternating between knitting layer one and layer two, fusing the two layers together into one cloth. Amazing!

Get started with Fusion Knitting

• The Honeycomb Conjecture Tutorials show every cable in the patterns.
• Mary will be teaching an Intro to Fusion Knitting Class with Marianated Yarns on February 27, 2024.
• Download the Follow the Leader Cowl Pattern.

The Honeycomb Conjecture Collection

Today, Mary is releasing a brand new knitwear design collection called The Honeycomb Conjecture Collection. The collection includes a cowl, scarf, blanket, and wrap.

• Collection https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/honeycomb-conjecture-collection
• Cowl https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeycomb-conjecture-cowl
• Scarf https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeycomb-conjecture-scarf
• Blanket https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeycomb-conjecture-blanket
• Wrap https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeycomb-conjecture-wrap

The Honeycomb Conjecture Blanket pattern uses our SweetGeorgia Yarns Superwash Worsted yarn in a hexagonal shape. The blanket starts in the centre with a single hexagon and grows outwards by working the honeycomb motif in six triangular sections. Knit this blanket as big or as little as you like and then frame it with i-cord to finish it off. This is ideal for knitting a big lap blanket for the couch or a little baby blanket for a stroller or car seat.

Since blankets often get lots of use, pulled in and out of vehicles, and more, it’s helpful to knit the blanket out of machine-washable, easy-care materials. In this case, our Superwash Worsted yarn is a great, squishy soft workhorse yarn that looks amazing in hand-dyed colours and is really easy to care for. Superwash Worsted is also a 4-ply yarn that is smooth and round, making for really effective knitted cables that pop and hold their shape.

This blanket design is great for learning Mary’s Modified Fusion Knitting technique.

Choosing Colours for Fusion Knitting

As you can see from the swatches and samples, your choices for colour A and B will meld together in the background of the cloth while the colour of the cables will pop forward out of the cloth. If you choose colours that are very high contrast in value or in hue, you might get a very busy background and the cables might not look as prominent. If you choose two colours that are a bit closer in hue and value, you could get a more blended look to your background cloth… but if the two colours are too similar, then you won’t get the full effect of a two-colour reversible project!

I’ve talked at length about knitting two colours together and we’ve even created a full, downloadable PDF with every colour combination we could possibly make using our Elixir colourways. If you have thoughts or questions about what colours to choose for your projects, I encourage you to also see our recently updated free workshop for Colour Play. It’s a short online video workshop all about colour theory for crafters. Find our Colour Play workshop on the School of SweetGeorgia here.