The Pooling Playground: Strelitzia (or Bird-Of-Paradise-Flower)
Welcome to the Pooling Playground! If you've just received a skein of our Strelitzia assignment pooling yarn and you're wondering how it will actually look when you knit it up, you're not alone. The beauty of pooling yarns lies in their unpredictability and that's exactly what makes them exciting.
Assignment pooling creates those gorgeous, organic colour blocks as you work, but the final result depends on your stitch pattern, tension, and how the yarn happens to fall. It's impossible to predict with complete certainty, which is why we're here to explore it with you.
In this series, we'll knit swatches, test different stitch patterns, and document exactly how our hand-dyed colours behave when they pool. Whether you're a seasoned pooling enthusiast or picking up assignment pooling for the first time, these explorations will help you feel confident about your yarn choice and inspire your next project.
So grab your needles, and let's see what Strelitzia has in store. We'll test it, we'll celebrate the surprises, and we'll share everything we discover along the way.
I was eager to test our new hand-dyed Strelitzia colour, so I grabbed a skein and settled in for a swatch. First came the familiar task of winding the skein into a ball and, as usual, I convinced myself I could skip the yarn winder this time. Surely it would be fine, right? Spoiler: it wasn't. What followed was an afternoon of patient detangling, a humbling reminder that some shortcuts simply aren't worth taking. But hey, at least I was committed to the cause!
Alright, when I was finally done winding, I got to knit my swatch. I had great fun and I discovered several interesting things. Let's dive in!
This is what the yarn looks like when knit in garter. It gives a really nice, playful effect. Notice how the yarn pools quite predictably around the edges? That's because the first part of my swatch was knit without any variation in row yardage. There's no increases or decreases. You could for instance, knit a simple scarf in garter stitch and probably a really cool pattern would pop up with horizontal or diagonal stripes.
From here on, I started doing increases on both sides every other row as well as switching to stockinette stitch. For a while still, the orange contrast sections kept pooling on the left side of my swatch. I noticed how the section definitely shifted each row, but it just took a little while to really scatter across to the other side again. Some would find this annoying but this is the part about pooling yarns I really like, the utter unpredictability. It's so lovely to keep getting surprises from the yarn shooting from one side of the work to the other. It makes every piece unique; you and I could knit the exact same pattern and it would look very different because of the yarn variations, tension differences, etc.
Ok, one more close-up stockinette stitch picture. Isn't she gorgeous? Alright, on to the flowers.
Because this is what it's all about (well, for most of you anyway) to knit a textured stitch that resembles a fruit or a flower. As you can see, I've been experimenting a little bit with my stitches and found out there's plenty of options to make a beautiful flower; you can't really go wrong! You could stick with one particular stitch throughout your pattern or you could (like the above picture) make them cousins instead of twins.
The instructions below are a tutorial on how to make my personal favourite version of this exotic flower. Again, please let your imagination and creativity flow freely and use the stitch that suits you best!
The Strelitzia / Bird-Of-Paradise-Flower Stitch
This stitch is actually pretty easy to do, I would say very beginner-friendly. The instructions for the RS and WS are pretty much identical. The stitch is always knit from the RS, so the only thing you need to remember is to turn your work when you are on the WS, and turn it back again in the end to continue where you left.
This is what the stitch is supposed to look like:
RS & WS
Knit in stockinette stitch as long as the yarn is green. When the yarn changes colour to orange and you are on the WS, turn your work to have the RS facing you.
Stick your RHN through the fabric front to back, about 4 rows down from the first stitch on your RHN. Pick up the working yarn with the tip of your needle and bring it through the fabric back to the front, essentially creating a loop. Create three more loops, each one slightly more horizontally. Hint: there's plenty of orange yarn, make them LONG, just like the real flower.
Turn round (WS) and purl the 4 loops together with the stitch that was already on your LHN. (so p5tog)
RS: Turn your work again to face the RS and slip 1 stitch (that's the one that is attached to the flower) from your LHN to your RHN and continue along your way.
WS: Continue purling.
We hope this little exploration has sparked some inspiration! Strelitzia is such a joy to work with, and we can't wait to see what you create with it. Whether you go for a simple garter scarf or a showstopping shawl full of Bird-of-Paradise flowers, this yarn is sure to surprise and delight you every step of the way.
Ready to cast on? Grab your skein of Strelitzia - Deluxe Merino Sock Assigned Pooling here and let the pooling begin. We'd love to see your makes — share them with us on Instagram and tag us so we can admire your work!