Archive for the ‘Hand knitting (HK)’ Category

Shadow/Illusion knitting DIY designs_HK

Monday, June 10th, 2013

I have played with excel (and Numbers) before to create charts for various fabrics requiring color separations. My latest efforts relating to this knit group have gone in a different direction; I have also attempted to simplify the technique  in terms of following the instructions for knitting them. This sample began with use of Intwined to create the document and graphs. The first chart is set up with alternate row color striping, color 1=dark, color 2 = light. Blank colored square are used as knit symbol, horizontal dash for symbol for purl stitches. Beginning on light colored, even numbered rows, design is marked in purl stitches

On odd numbered rows beginning with row 1, mark all empty squares in even numbered light colored row immediately above it  with purl symbols

All unmarked stitches throughout the design are knit, whether on the “wrong / right” sides, all dashes are purled, patterning occurs on the second row of each color.To visualize the full pattern one may use the add row below feature to expand the graph (chart below is missing very first row)

Now adding the second row of each color , and grounding stripe (s) at bottom of repeat. Most patterns will start the illusion immediately after casting on with dark color, row 1 above. I was interested for my sample in having a border of sorts on its top and bottom

The resulting knit swatch

shadow side

Intwinded has the capacity for building row by row written instructions for patterns, but there were discrepancies on some rows for these charts, and I opted not to include them.

Another program I have just acquired and begun to use is GIMP; it is free, and now also available for use in Mac OS Mountain Lion. Both Gimp and Photoshop make it possible to design using single pixel pencil and grids to build motifs from scratch as well as gridding of preexisting images. I have a different method for these fabrics using GIMP, easier for more complex, overall shapes. The same series of steps may be used for mosaic knitting (color inversion sequence is different). Below are images generated for a different illusion pattern, I will share my “how to” for designing the motifs later, referencing mosaics and mazes. To achieve such motifs one is drawing in magnification of multiple hundreds and more, there is no way to number within a one pixel space, so these charts as generated are lacking numbers for stitches and rows, one drawback. Another is that this color inversion works only in black and white. One advantage: the proper repeat may be cropped and saved with grid removed in a variety of formats that may be used to import to various machine knitting download programs, and gridded may be used to establish punchcard or mylar repeats.  Screen grabs of magnified charts were saved, and are shown below. Black squares represent purl stitches in second row of each color. First row of each color is always knit, not represented in these charts

the red squares are guidelines for no color inversion rows, the yellow ones isolate the repeat

the actual repeat

color inversion beginning on row 1 and following every other row (if numbered these would be odd rows)

testing the repeat through tiling filter mapping

a working chart that can be printed to suit with dark/light row markings, and blank squares for tracking knitting  rows in execution of pattern

the knit swatch: “shadow side”

its reverse side

Knit topological shapes

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

It is possible to construct topological shape via knitting. In HK this may be done on circulars. One out of many tutorials may be found here, and the mathematical knitting is a very good, extensive resource.

A recent forum post on knitting such shapes on the machine led me to dig out an old sample of mine knit with brass wire and holding on the km flatbed; since I never actually determined an end use, the donut hole inner seam was never joined.
in this view the piece is about 3 inches in height, and 8 inches across

a side view
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Hand to machine, symbols 4: cables

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

The following begin to address cable translations. I posted some content on cables January 2012 , but this content follows the present vein. Blue dots continue to represent the hand knit symbol, below them the fabric as viewed on knit side. The pink dots and the images on either side of them the machine knit, or fabric as viewed from purl side. In the column on the far right the green dots and the images below them represent the opposing twist in HK or knit side.

To execute combinations in knit purl on the same side of the knit on the machine, a ribber is required (or a Brother G carriage). Purl stitches are on main bed, knit stitches are created by the opposing bed. To match the hand knit here, crossings are actually made in the same direction in both HK and MK


HK pattern, software charting.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

I have reached the point where decades old (89 and earlier) magazines that got “saved” are now being peeked at, and if not given away, then recycled. There may be some bleed through here from pages I have “saved” once again. Browsing through I found some designs not appropriate for machine knitting for one reason or another, but still creating interesting surfaces and the chance to explore using intwined’s other features. The program will create text from a chart, or chart from typed text with some limitations. One of the latter is a very large cable as seen in the attached document. PDF exports can happen within the program if one is specific in the sequencing of creating its documents. The 1989 pattern had only text for the repeat; I typed it, and had the chart pretty much created for me except for the problem row 5. Here is the resulting Intwined created PDF with some of my comments: cable_diamond. The following is the graph I edited, with my illustration for the execution of row 5

the blue line separates the slip stitch section, which can serve as a border on each side of the cable panels, the red lines the edges of the 12 stitches involved in the cable. The green stitches are put on a cable needle and brought to the front of the work, the next 6 stitches are knit first, then the ones from the cable needle to complete the crossing.

the swatch: knit side

the purl side

Hand to machine, symbols 3

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

In following series the blue dots and accompanying diagrams continue to represent the fabric as it would appear on the knit side if hand knit, or after the work is removed from the machine. The pink dots and accompanying graphics represent the matching stitch on the purl side and as it may be executed on the knitting machine to match the original fabric.

A/B revisit increases within the row. The same motion may be used on the KM to increase single stitches at garment edge, allowing for increases on both sides at the same time (if they always occur mostly on the same side however, one side will have consistently tighter end stitches, and be shorter). C/D revisit slipped stitches. In D the image on far right shows the position for the needle about to be skipped/slipped. If working slip stitch through hand selection, the needles that are out to 3rd position, or out to “holding” will knit. E/F revisit twisted stitches within any one row.

Revisiting tuck stitch, and ruching: in the tuck stitch formation in A/B, B has the added illustration showing bringing out to “holding”, (D, or E position depending on machine brand) any needle that has multiple loops on it prior to the next row of knitting all stitches. C/D are variants : in addition to combining loops the top stitch is reformed to show as purl on the knit side, knit on the purl. E/F illustrate ruching where single or multiple stitches are pulled up to gather fabric and create texture, for any desired/varying number of rows

Below the first row illustrates ladders resulting from a few methods in hand knitting, to emptying needles and leaving them out of work (A position) on the KM. The second row represents a wrapped increase on the edge of the knit, on the KM this is known as e wrapping.

Cable crossings may be represented a variety of ways, below are just a couple; the grayed out areas after the first chart IMO help define forward facing stitches on completion of the transfer for the cable, whether on front of knit, or on purl side facing the knitter on the machine.

Other fabrics such as ribs and more on lace will be explored at a later date.

Knitter’s guide to inkscape

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

Inkscape is a free vector program that may be downloaded here. The program runs in both windows and mac environments. In Mac OS 10.8 a work around is needed for using the program, may be found here. For a knitter’s guide to using the program, see youtube series. I am presently using the program in conjunction with Intwined to develop my own icons and charts.

Hand to machine, symbols 2

Monday, January 28th, 2013

The symbol below usually represents a single increase. In hand knitting such increases may be achieved anywhere in any one row. In machine knitting however,  this may only be done with any ease at garment edges. Machine knitters may be familiar with calling what is depicted below a full fashioned increase. To achieve the latter,  a multiple prong tool is used to move the chosen stitches a number over to the right or to the left. On the machine, the resulting empty needle then needs to be “filled” unless lace holes created without doing so are part of the design; this may be done by picking up the purl bar from the row below. The blue dots represents the HK symbol, the pink the same symbol as it might be represented for MK to achieve the same result. The machine knit illustrations in this series do not factor in automatic patterning: rather,  they show how the stitches would be hand tooled on the machine to achieve similar fabrics.

single increase

brioche/tuck stitch: the first 2 image series show “normal” orientation, the  3rd and 4th series the twisted in front of knit version. In MK the elongated stitch is twisted and returned to its needle; similar fabric may be created  purely through hand technique by using holding on single needles in desired locations. Tucked rows in KM programming are unpunched squares in card, white “squares” in mylars or computer downloads. Using the repeat below, in electronics it is possible to “draw” only the 3 tucked squares, and use color reverse.

slip stitch: the first 2 image series show “normal” orientation. In machine knitting the slipped, elongated stitch is created on knit side, with the remaining “floats/bars” remaining on the purl. In the 3rd and 4th image series the elongated stitch moves to the back of the work, while the “floats/bars” move to knit side of the fabric and form a pattern on it. As with tuck stitches,  rows for slip in KM programming are unpunched squares in card, white “squares” in mylars or computer downloads. Using the repeat below, in electronics it is possible to “draw” only the 2 slipped squares, and use color reverse. Because in this fabric the needles are skipped, not filled with loops, multiple punched holes or white squares may occur side by side. If the goal is to achieve the skip stitch floats appearing on the knit side, retooling by hand is required on all skipped needles prior to the next all knit row.

stitches woven through stitches: because of the fixed width stitches must travel with any crossings on the machine there are limits as to how far they are able to move across the bed within any one row. Cables come to mind immediately in terms of stitches crossing; another type of cross weaves stitches through others singly or in sets, which may also be done within rows of long stitches. In the illustration below, one stitch crosses through the center of another. If one is trying to match the hand knit fabric version, then the direction of the “weaving” is reversed as it would be in the case of cabling. Light colors and thick yarn help make the results more visible. This is strictly a hand technique; however, for greater accuracy and speed one may program card or electronics to select either the needle that comes off first, or the pair of needles involved involved with the cross.

an alternative symbol sometimes seem for this stitch

a simply repeat illustrated for KM: since the whole ground is purl, symbols for purl need not be used

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Hand to machine knitting symbols1

Friday, January 25th, 2013

One of the critical differences in viewing work as it progresses on the knitting machine, is that the “front” view of the fabric unless the work is removed from the needles through a variety of techniques and turned over on the needle bed, is the purl side. Early machine manufacturer punchcard book publications made an effort to help hand knitters make the transition. A chart from brother publishing knit_sym96 illustrates one such effort. Here the middle icon in the how to work column is the stitch formation one would need to achieve on the MK to get the same “look” as the HK samples. Some symbols apply to both types of knitting, some should be mirrored horizontally to make sense, and in the case of the crossing stitches at top right of the second column there is a bit of confused identity.

Over the years there has been an interesting transition from hand written stitch by stitch instructions to the introduction of symbols ranging from home grown on graph paper, to simple word processing and later software generated ones. Some international differences occurred in published works, and international agreed upon symbols for both knit and crochet eventually evolved. There are many design programs on the market now, I have linked to some in past posts. As knitters have venues for publishing their own repeats and patterns and tools have multiplied, symbols do not always necessarily have the same meaning, and stitch codes are no longer universal.

I have been wanting to find a way other than using excel to build a stitch library usable for machine knitters in an easily accessible program that  would do some of the “work” for me. I have experimented with 2 programs. One was knitbird, which I would not recommend for this purpose, the other Intwined Studio which is proving far more flexible and worth the modest investment for me. I work on MacOS10.8, the Intwined version for this OS is beta. There are some small glitches, but this is a tool worth exploring. The option is there to add one’s own symbols to the stitch library. I have begun working on a machine knitting set with icons created in a combination of other programs and Inkscape, the one suggested in the tutorial by the developer. Some charts created with Intwined may be seen in my previous post on sideways pleated skirts. Below is a chart including some MK symbols in my personal library, also using the option to color background for them in program itself rather than editing the chart image after the fact.

To download Inkscape: site. The work around to get the program to work in Mac OS10.8 may be found here.

The combination of color with symbols in published patterns for both hand knit and crochet is beginning to proliferate. I find the visual color cues help track patterns more easily, have done it in HK in the past, one such example is my chain cable experiment in my January 3rd post.

Some illustrations for lace symbols HK vs MK may be found in my post February 25, 2012 “back to lace”.

Machine knit double and single bed pleats

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

This is the latest type of fabric to cross my radar. One publication readily available online is at Susan Guagliumi’s website. My own in progress notes/ideas Pleats in full needle rib2, and SINGLE BED PLEATS. Some single bed pleating may be automated. Revisions, additions and photos will follow.

Chain cable HK experiment

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

Several months ago menswear began to appear featuring versions of chained cables. There are some published sources for such patterns, some available for purchase online ie in ravelry,  while others may be found in the Barbara Walker Treasury Books. One HK version from the latter may be found here. I decided to play with excel and experiment further. I used Aire River Design font on my Mac to generate symbols used. Columns and rows may be easily edited to adjust height and width of repeat to suit in the design process. I charted only knit “right side rows”. On purl rows one simply reverses previous row’s purl/knit sequences

the first linear repeat (outlined in orange)

I tend to prefer brick repeats in odd numbers across the piece: this instance adds reverse knit rows in center of the cables as well for more surface texture, seed stitch may be another consideration

a quick swatch testing the repeat in a random cotton from my stash

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