Hot Air Balloon (Parachute) Two-Colour Knitting Pattern for Kids' Sweaters

Look closely and you'll see little parachutes, or hot air balloons, floating up the fabric. It's an easy two-colour design and you can make it multicoloured too. On children's sweaters it looks especially lovely.

Stitch count

What you'll need

• Two colours of yarn: colour A (my first colour is pink) and colour B (sea green)
• Knitting needles to suit your yarn

Three rules for this pattern

• Knit the edge stitch on every row; never slip it. On right-side rows knit it, on wrong-side rows purl it.
• Each stitch is knitted in its own colour. Stitches of the other colour are slipped, with the yarn at the back on right-side rows and in front on wrong-side rows.
• Each colour is used for 4 rows. When you change, twist the colours together at the edge and carry the unused one up the side.

The crossing move

On some rows, a slipped stitch of the other colour moves one place left or right. Swap the order of the two stitches (take the one going right across the front, or the one going left across the back). Then knit the stitch in your working colour and slip the other one without knitting it.

Rows 1–4 (colour B)

Rows 5–8 (colour A)

Rows 9–12 (colour B)

Rows 13–16 (colour A)

Repeat these 16 rows, starting again with colour B. The balloons build up in alternating colours as you go.

• hot air balloon knitting
• two colour knitting
• slip stitch pattern
• kids sweater pattern
• colourwork
• hand knitting
• wool
• handmade