KNITTING UP DULWICH ROAD

I know, another green square immediately after the BLM Hedge, but my failed Brockwell Park in Spring has bugged me ever since I nixed it. Time to lay it to rest.

Rather than poke at the wound, I’m going to work up a new textured approach on the summer park. And as I’m basing my design on these photos that were taken in July and August 2026 through London’s 5 crazy heatwaves, this square will in fact be only green-ish. Poor dry park. Thank goodness for the rain that finally arrived this week. We need so much more.

If I follow my early idea to use the same design for all four seasonal park squares, varying just the colours, I should be able to replace the hated spring block quite easily. Fingers crossed. For now, it’s summer.

Digging through the yarns I’ve used for this project or have in my stash, I’ve found a nice little haul to draw on. Lots of olive greens, sandy shades and a creamy aran for the fluffy thistle seed heads seen through railings. The blues are new – another Kidsilk Haze to warm up the not-quite cerulean of a Concept by Katia Merino Baby yarn. The hard bit will be choosing no more than 8 of these to bring the park colours together in a satisfying whole.

I want a repeated pattern comprised of three or four textured stripes made from knit-purl stitches. One of these will be 6 rows of moss stitch using single rows of 3 alternating shades. I met this in last year’s Debbie Abrahams’ Mystery Blanket (see below) and it’s such an effective way to create a natural mingling of colours.

I may use small bobbles for the thistle seed heads and perhaps a lozenge pattern to bring several colours together. A slip stitch might be useful or maybe a tuck stitch. I don’t know yet. The stitch dictionaries keep delivering a new thought with each page turn, so I’m going to play with all this in a test strip of many ideas and take my pick from the best. Should be fun.