Knitting in Literature & Pop Culture

Knitting books and patterns with a literary theme have been very popular lately. There are the Jane Austen Knits from Interweave, the What Would Madame Defarge Knit? from Cooperative Press, and tons of individual patterns on Ravelry with literary roots. There are even a few from Yarn Love! The Frivolous Socks are inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse; from Sense & Sensibility there are the Miss Margaret Socks which are named for Margaret Dashwood,   and thee Lady Elinor socks are named after her older sister, Elinor Dashwood. Although it is unclear if Jane Austen herself was a knitter, she does mention some of her characters knitting in Emma, where there are references to both Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Bates knitting. Madame Defarge was an avid knitter. Her contribution to the French Revolution was knitting a roster of names that would become victims of the Revolution.

There’s also lots of knitting in TV and movies! In Friends, there are several episodes that show Phoebe knitting, but this clip is by far the best. It shows Phoebe struggling to learn how to knit, and then she shows a few strands of yarn tied together, throws it around her neck and exclaims, “Scarf’s done!”.

There have been a surge of patterns inspired by the Harry Potter series, and Hermoine showed off some great knit accessories in the movies. Dumbledore also mentions a love of knitting patterns in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood  Prince.

Creating contrast in your knitting using texture (Part 2)

Read part 1 of the contrast discussion right here. 

Now let’s continue talking about designing colorwork socks. In the last post I told you that successful colorwork requires contrast. You can achieve contrast via saturation (light vs. dark) or pairing complementary colors (color wheel opposites naturally contrast with each other). But that’s not the end of the discussion on contrast. You can also achieve visual contrast by varying texture.

That’s right. By adding textured stitches, you can create contrast and dimension in your knitwear. (You can also do this with other textiles, but for now we’ll talk about knitwear.) While this might not be 100% relevant to traditional colowork, it is still a useful design concept, and I would feel remiss about skipping it. And, let’s face it, it’s not unusual to see textured stitches paired with colorwork, so let’s discuss.

Contrast

3.) Texture  – creates visual contrast

Using both knit and purl stitches, rearranging stitch order, and skipping stitches all produce contrast in knitting. You may know this technique by a common name: stitch patterns. Stitch patterns are as old as knitting itself and consummately popular. Why? Because they’re interesting and draw the eye. You can use texture all by itself to create contrast.

Take a look at these examples:

This swatch has a single, highly saturated hue: black. If you have ever knit with black yarn you know that the depth of the saturation really reduces the eye’s ability to distinguish one stitch from another. (Have you ever found yourself/heard your knitting buddy talk about when you can only knit on that black project in full daylight while bending toward the window…. That’s because the saturation is so dark that your eye has trouble distinguishing one stitch from another. There’s not enough contrast to knit easily.) The gigantic bubble textures plus the open holes on the edge creates contrast when very little is present otherwise. While it might not increase the ease of knitting, adding big texture to a super saturated hue increases it’s contrast and gives the knitting more visual interest.

Additional notes on adding texture to super saturated colors:

• Bigger & bolder is better. Finer textures are likely to get lost.
• Use holes: yarn overs or bigger i-cord holes like above. This allows the background to show through increasing contrast.You could even use a buttonhole technique to add longer slits.
• Decreases are really hard to see on super saturated hues. Keep them to a minimum to save your sanity.

Another extreme example. This cowl features a single color – white. While white allows the eye to see more contrast than black simply due to it’s lighter saturation, a flat stockinette fabric would blur together. Here holes (yarn overs) and increases/decreases are used to great affect. The entire fabric has a glorious texture which is easily seen, despite the lack of other contrast.

This isn’t knitting. It’s a woven jute rug, but it’s still a fabulous example. (You could knit up something really similar by plotting out a stranded colorwork chart or grabbing a mosaic knitting stitch pattern.) The colors here only have moderate contrast. To my eye, they are borderline for being good choices in a colorwork project. From a distance, their close saturation and close relationship on the color wheel means that the over all look is likely to be “blendy” – without distinct edges. Blendy means your pattern will be lost due to the lack of contrast. However, texture has been added to give the rug the “pop” it needs. It takes it from being borderline boring into pleasing with a hint of interest. (Not to mention great for cleaning off the bottom of your shoes.)

Conclusions

So what can we take away from this? If you have a colorwork project that is almost there, but your colors aren’t quite working out, consider adding a spot of texture to one of the colors. Try reverse stockinette or seed stitch but add it only to one color. The play of texture is often enough to achieve that elusive visual “pop”.

Take a look at this detail shot of my design-in-progress. While it’s true that this project doesn’t lack for contrast, thanks to my choice of complementary hues, don’t you think those few purled rows really set off the hem? I think so, too.

Finally, eye candy. Low contrast, high texture. Isn’t it wonderful?

Lady Elinor Socks

Lotus Cardigan by Rowan

Rivulets Bedding by Anthropologie

 Photo Credits & Thanks

A huge thank-you to Heidi and Carrie for allowing me to use their swatch & cowl photographs respectively. I ran across their work via internet searching and they graciously allowed me to share their wonderful work with you. It perfectly illustrates my points and I appreciate their generosity. Catch up with them here:

Heidi: Ravelry & Heidi’s Blog

Carrie: Ravelry & Carrie’s Blog & her work for Quince & Co.

When tragedy strikes: coping with a failed gusset

I’ve been working on a new pattern all week. I started it last weekend, and since then my work has resulted in:

• 3 complete restarts. Everything ripped followed by a new cast on.
• 4 partial rips: most of these rips removed 50% of the current progress. I could have had the whole thing done if only I’d avoided this.
• 1 new technique incorporated. Ironically, this has been the smoothest part of the whole design. Go figure.
• Lots of questioning of my previously very solidly held belief that this design was, indeed, very clever.

In the course of the entire week – we’re talking daily work in this rather diminutive garment – I’ve not even used up all the yarn freed from previous ripping sessions. I have mixed feelings about ripping out knitting. In days past, I would do anything to avoid ripping out my work. It was tragic. It was soul-wrenching. All that work disappearing into the ether…..never to been seen, used or loved.

In more recent days – or in the days since I’ve started designing I’ve embraced ripping out my work. When you’re publishing, things have to be as near to perfect as possible. Missed stitches, wrongly crossed cables, and questionable design decisions all have to come out.

While rambling down the road to knitterly perfection, I’ve learned that no matter how precious my knitting is to me, I feel better when I’ve recognized and fixed my errors. I like that my work is quality, and value that more than the mere production of knitted fabric. I feel that I’ve grown as a knitter. That by pushing myself to work outside my comfort zone I’ve improved my skills, patience, and the quality of my finished knitwear. I like that.

This week’s challenge has been the gussets on this sock. They just will.not.work. I’ve designed, redesigned and reredesigned. Colors have been changed, the stitch pattern has been rethought and reworked. Last night I came to a conclusion. It may have been inevitable. It may have been fate.

These socks aren’t going to have gussets.

So despite my very firmly held belief that all socks should have gussets, I’m giving in to the impulse of the design and leaving them out. It’s the best thing for the pattern. It still fits the foot for which it was designed. Since I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone (I love gussets! They’re my favorite part of any sock pattern!) I’m going big and going to do an afterthought heel. Ooh, the drama of design!

So if you are fighting with your knitting, stop. Listen. Be un-afraid to quit fruitless attempts to mash a project into your ideal and find it’s hidden potential….even if that means doing something new.

you know you’re a designer when…..

Your kitchen looks like this. Yes, that is a sock on a partial mannequin leg on my kitchen counter. Granted this is the “mail center” and “keys” portion of the kitchen (ahem, also great for catching all sorts of random clutter/junk) so it’s not like we’re eating socks for lunch, but still. The leg has been residing here for a couple of days while I waited for the weather to clear enough for me to take decent photos for a pattern. I’ve tried and tried but earlier this week it was just too dark for my camera to take a pretty photo even with supplemental lighting.

That sock is one half of my Grecian Goddess sample pair that has been waiting photography for ever. I promise one day I’ll actually have that pattern ready for technical editing. It’s on my spring “to do” list.

Miss Margaret Socks – newly released!

Introducing:

little Miss Margaret!

Miss Margaret is my latest pattern. She was released yesterday for Three Irish Girls’ Sock Yarnista club. She’ll be available for purchase for non-club members shortly at Three Irish Girls.

She is a cuff down sock with an easy to remember spiral stitch pattern. I’ve added beads for a little “bling” but she’s just as pretty without. The spiral pattern melts into a cabled heel flap and is framed by prettily cabled gussets for a great fit.

The pink sample is shown in Scarlett O’Hara by Yarn Love, colorway: Petal.

Intermediate difficulty: pattern assumes familiarity with cables and charts. Bead work is done using a small crochet hook, so you don’t have to pre-string the beads.

Materials:
• 4 oz/410 yards fingering weight yarn. Shown in Yarn Love’s Scarlett O’ Hara. Color – Petal.
• US size1 or 2.25 mm needles (2 circulars, 5 DPNS or 1 long circular for magic loop.)
• Taspestry needle
• Stitch markers (optional)

Extra notions:
• Small gauge steel crochet hook – size 14
• Seed beads size 6 or 8 (You will need 60-80 per sock depending upon how long you knit the cuff.)
• 2 small cable needles (You may cable without cable needles if you prefer.)

Techniques:
• Beading (explained in the pattern)
• Cables
• Short rows

Notes:
• The heel flap, gusset, and instep st patterns are given as charts only for clarity.
• You may pre-string the beads if you prefer.

Where are they now?

KnitCroBlo Day 6: Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted.

Fiddlehead Mittens

I actually don’t know exactly what these mittens are up to now. They were for a swap partner, and I hope she is getting lots of use out of them!

I knit them from the Fiddlehead Mitten pattern. The yarn is Andee dk from Henry’s Attic, that I hand dyed for this project.

They were so much fun to make, and are super dense. I had to go down to a 000/1.25mm needle to get gauge, so I opted not to line this pair. I need to make some for myself but like most things, I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Bowl Full of Cherries Socks

I designed these socks for the Sock Knitter’s Anonymous July 2009 challenge. Right now the original pattern (released in 4 parts for the challenge) is available for free.

I loved designing these socks, but they were a challenge. I had a total of 3 weeks to design and publish the pattern. (The designer they had lined up had to decline unexpectedly.) They were my first colorwork design. There are two versions – a 2 strand and a 3 strand – and they’re available in two sizes.

By the time I got done knitting both socks, I was pretty much (happily!) exhausted. It was a whirlwind tour and I had a million ends to weave in. My mom fell in love with the socks and offered a trade. She would weave in all the ends if she could have the socks. Done! I love seeing the fraternal twin socks on her feet. It’s as satisfying as completing the pattern and finishing the knitting.

Where do you indulge?

KnitCroBlo Day 5: Where do you like to indulge in your craft?

Since I am generally designing while I knit, I must have at least a piece of paper and pencil handy….but often times my laptop, too. I’m hugely into charting when designing for visual simplicity and ease of error checking (via KnitVisualizer) so it’s nice to have the computer around for quick changes. Practically speaking, I always knit at home and I’m either sitting at my kitchen table or on my couch. I try to save the majority of my design time for when my kiddos are in bed. Theoretically this allows me to concentrate and make fewer mistakes. But it didn’t stop me from ripping out the instep of my newest (and still TOP SECRET) sock design 5 times last week.

I have knitting/designing/dyeing stuff in various places throughout the house, so you’ll find me doing yarn related things in the kitchen, spare bedroom/storage space and basement. These yarn related activities are usually not knitting, but generally dyeing, packaging, yarn prep, yarn washing, and business related etc.

It’s a good thing we have a pretty big house.

What would you like to learn: knitcroblo 4

KnitCroBlo Day Four: Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day?

I want to learn how to chart crochet! I’m fairly proficient with knit charting. I even have a really nifty program that helps me out. (KnitVisualizer is what I’m running. There’s a new program, much less expensive from Intwined Studio that’s getting rave reviews. It checks in at $44, instead of $185 for KnitVisualizer.) Since I love charts for knitting as I can see immediately how stitches line up with each other, I’d like to be able to do the same thing with crochet.

When I learned to crochet charts were not commonly available in crochet patterns. Which meant that you crocheted along, checking the picture and sometimes you could be rows past a mistake before you realized it. With charting, it’s harder to do that because stitches are lined up and you can look down a column and see the previous stitches which are the foundation for your current work.

I recently found the StichinCrochet font by the talented Adriprint. If you download the True Type font (TT font) and own KnitVisualizer, you can import the Stitchin Crochet font into Knit Visualizer & use the crochet symbols within the charting software. All you need to do is use the Create Custom Stitch function, select the symbol you want to use, enter in directions for completing the stitch, save and you’re ready to go.

I’m so excited about the possibilities. I have a lot to learn about charting crochet, but I’m chomping at the bit to chart out a lovely crocheted edging along the cuff of a sock….or the edge of a sleeve.

Knitting Needle Conversion Chart

Let’s be frank. I like to knit socks on tiny needles. And I like to know both the US size (000) and the metric (1.75mm) but most knitting needle conversion charts don’t list these sizes. So I’ve made one for myself & decided to post it here in case you could use it, too.

Knitting Needle Conversion Chart  000-000 – 50 or .7mm – 25mm

Socks….lots and lots of socks.

I’ve been meaning to blog more, but not doing a good job of it for the past several (read 6-9) months. I’m attempting to fix that now, and get back on my Monday blogging schedule again. I have been busy in my off time. If by off time you allow that I’m running a hand dyeing business, branching into designing, teaching dyeing, and prepping to vend at Sock Summit.

I do have pretties to show you. Maybe I won’t post them all now, but snippets….to entice you to come back. (Some of these links will direct you to Ravelry.com. If you’re not a member there yet, you need to be. Don’t fuss, just sign up. You’ll be glad you did!)

I’m going to start with the most recent pattern added to the Katie Franceschi collection. It’s available for purchase (Immediate download, no less! Yay, instant gratification!)

Winding Path Socks

Yarn Love's Elizabeth Bennet yarn in Awakening Earth

Designed especially to accentuate the particular beauty of hand-dyed yarns. No more knitting with the most gorgeous skein ever only to discover that it does wicked, wicked things when you actually knit it. The pattern contains specific guidance for choosing an appropriate yarn. Both examples are knit with high contrast, multi-color yarns. Generally speaking highly saturated colors with high contrast to each other present the largest challenge when knitting with hand dyed/ painted yarns. Ironically, the multi-color skeins are often the ones that catch your eye and draw you in!

The socks are worked toe up, with a generous gusset for a great fit. (The gusset is that triangle along the side of the foot.) The stitch pattern does a great job of breaking up and re-distributing the bold colors – which gives the sock an over all even sprinkling of color. Notice how there aren’t large blotches of any single color anywhere. Those blotches are referred to as pooling or flashing and are usually very distracting. Then I finished off the sock with a simple cable. It’s eye catching and keeps you interested as the knitting progresses. Yes, the pair is asymmetrical. The cable travels up the outside of each sock. You could place the cable on same side for each sock, but it looks….very odd when you wear them!

As a bonus, there are four widths included in the pattern. And instructions for using both fingering weight and sport weight yarns. You can knit these up for practically any adult foot size! The sport weight option makes these a good choice for a fast gift!

Extras

When I’m designing, I usually knit up more than one version of the sock. The first pair is the design template, and the second pair is polished and pristine (Well, mostly pristine.) for photography. You can see the prototype pair for this pattern in my Ravelry Projects. If you keep tabs on my projects at Ravlery, you’ll most likely see my design projects in progress.

Yarn Love's Elizabeth Bennet yarn in Nostalgia