Year of Color 2026 — Month 6 of 12

Welcome to Year of Color!

Copper Tide is a free knit square pattern worked in slip stitch using four shades of Cascade Heritage fingering weight yarn: Bachelor Button, Marine, Mango, and Pumpkin. Part of the Year of Color 2026 MAL, this square arranges the colors in vertical stripes, but the slip-stitch technique softens every boundary, letting each color bleed into its neighbor rather than stopping cleanly at a line. Inspired by the Tweed Slip Stitch With Garter – No Purls technique by Joanne’s Web.

The technique uses only knit stitches. Slipped stitches carry the adjacent color through each row, building a woven, textured surface that looks far more intricate than it is. The square is worked flat.

The name comes from the way ocean water moves at the shoreline: distinct bands of color, deep navy to bright sky to warm sand, that blur and shift wherever they meet.

Materials

Yarn: Cascade Heritage Fingering in 5641 Mango (A), 5646 Pumpkin (B), 5603 Marine (C) and 5741 Bachelor Button (D)

Needle: US 6 (4mm) straight or circular needles or size needed to obtain gauge.

Gauge: 25 sts and 37 rows = 4″

This gauge is smaller/tighter than the others because slipped stitches naturally compress gauge. This is particularly true with the length of the square.

Notions: Tapestry needle, scissors

Finished size: 8.5″ × 8.5″ blocked

Pattern

Setup: Using Mango (A), CO 53

Make square following chart, or use the written below.

The square is a simple 4-row repeat. The only thing that changes is the color that the row is worked in. Every row is only worked in one color.

After you do the setup, just start working the Copper Tide pattern, following the color sequence below. Remember, you work 2 rows of the stitch pattern with each color. Here is an example:

Rows 1 & 2: Mango

Rows 3 & 4: Pumpkin

Rows 5 & 6: Mango

Rows 7 & 8: Pumpkin

Copper Tide Chart

Copper Tide Stitch Pattern

4-row repeat over an odd number of stitches

Row 1 (RS): Knit

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: K1, *sl 1, k1*

Row 4: K1, *sl 1, k1*

Copper Tide Color Sequence

Every color is worked over 2 rows. It’s divided into sections just to make it easier for you to read it and keep track.

Mango (A)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Bachelor Button (D)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Bachelor Button (D)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Bachelor Button (D)

Pumpkin (B)

Mango (A)

Bachelor Button (D)

Pumpkin (B)

Marine (C)

Pumpkin (B)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Pumpkin (B)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Pumpkin (B)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Bachelor Button (D)

Pumpkin (B)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Bachelor Button (D)

Marine (C)

Blocking: Block to 8.5″ so that when you take it off the blocking wires and it compresses, it will be 8″.

Finishing: Weave in ends.

About Year of Color

This square is part of Year of Color 2026, a 12-month program that teaches you a new colorwork technique every month through two free square patterns (one crochet, one knit). Each month features a curated color palette, technique tutorials, and color inspiration articles. By December, you’ll have 12 squares to join together into whatever you’d like, and a whole year of new skills to show for it.