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IN PROGRESS

Automated shapes across rows of knitting using slip stitch only  reviews several methods  to automate/ program short row techniques. BW repeats may have stripes of color planned and added by simply changing yarns in the yarn feeder in the planned areas.
A recent FB comment asked the question as to whether it is possible to automate intarsia using img2track downloads.
Short row “intarsia” can be executed with manual needle selection following charts, or as an easier, viable option using a knit radar and following shapes illustrated on garment pieces, which can follow the simple geometry seen in the hand selection methods, or graduate to the degree of complexity the knitter has the patience to execute.
These posts illustrate simple shapes and the breaking down of more complex ones.
Intarsia without an intarsia carriage on Brother machines.
A bit of holding 5: intarsia and more 2
A bit of holding 4: intarsia and more.
The Silver Reed electronic intarsia carriage was briefly available as an accessory for knitting complex intarsia designs with automated needle selection.
The yarn is placed and used in the same manner as when using the Brother intarsia accessory, but note that there are now multiple needle positions and selections for 4 types of intarsia are offered.  I gave away my standard intarsia carriage, so I cannot speak as to whether programming a design, placing yarn in selected needle groups manually as above, and bringing them all to the required position for the carriage would be a possible alternative.
These images are from the E6000 Passap manual, alongside the electronic repeats, which are mirrored on the front face of the knit. The accompanying technique recommendations. Without a Passap, and the discussion being on Brother electronic knitting, starting with duplicating one of the Passap designs and thinking it through, starting with the 32X28 repeat, planning to use only 2 colors, doubled in height to 32X56, color separated for 2 color DBJ with each color in each design row knitting twice by color inverting every other row and doubling the height once more, to a final repeat of 32X112, mirrored for use on the 930. End needle selection must be canceled.
The pattern setting is for slip-stitch in both directions.
The first preselection row is from right to left, with color changes every 2 rows using the changer on that side.
There will be a yarn end to weave in, as at the start of any intarsia design.
Since each color knits for two rows, there are eyelets formed at the color changes, familiar in short row designs. If bothersome, the size of the eyelets could be reduced.
The pattern was tested on 32 stitches and for 132 rows. At any point, more colors could be introduced for horizontal striping color changes.  When the yarn traveled across multiple stitches before being picked up, the resulting floats were hooked up every third needle on the same color stitches before knitting the second pass with it.
Central designs are more problematic to execute and may knit more easily as single FI motifs, wrapping at the sides, and latching up floats as needed.
The program itself will separate for 3 and 4-color designs.
This first attempt was a failure and reminded me why I love/hate the single bed color changers.
Aside from the changer and sinker plate crankiness, the colors, as they were carried up the left side, would twist around each other, forming floats to the next selected group.
Img2track selects colors based on the number of cells that are represented in each on the first design row, hence the sequence is blue, yellow, red.
The test image, 32×28, was doubled in height to 32X56. I prefer to start short rows from the right. Aiming for a similar attempt with the automated version, the image was mirrored horizontally for use on the 930.
The first preselection row is toward the color changer (remember to change the setting when the carriage is on the left to slip stitch).     I have a love/hate relationship with the Brother single bed color changer, and this was a day when everything that could go wrong had. In addition, color #3, the red, catches on the left side before traveling to knit the narrow center band of color for no reason I could immediately fathom. What the manual has to offer, not necessary with 2 out of 3 colors: After the knitter, accessory, and the machine got a break, analyzing the order for color changes made by the program, noted that selections are made in order of the number of cells representing each color in each design row, making the red, color 3, the selection for the center shape, catching that color on the left.
To eliminate that problem, one solution is to use a second carriage to select and knit the center color, operating from the right side, using rails and making sure each knit carriage clears the belt before the second carriage operates from the opposite side.
The programmed repeat stays the same.
This particular design has some jumps in the color sequences that form long floats. They can be managed as one would in FI, i.e. The resulting test swatch.  Devising a manual color separation to work cleanly with a fixed 1,2,3 sequence, the full repeat was cropped to 32X48 pixels in height, with each color in each design row still occurring X3, and mirrored for execution on the 930.  The manual color separation using ArahPaint, shown charted in progress: The double height rendition, with the white color locked, can have all other colors filled with black, seen in the charted repeat on the far right, and programmed as FI in img2track.
Missing out on the prompts for color changes is not a loss. It is easy to see which colors should knit next, with #1, red, starting on the far right, followed by the dark color, 2, for the center shapes, and then 3, the yellow/orange. The BW color-separated file PNG, 32X96, and the proof of concept swatch. A convoluted approach: DAK Method C, if you have access to a screen grab of the template can convert it manually to a BW PNG, which may work with img2track, the double-length switch will need to be used in Japanese knitting machines. The DAK jacquard choices.

IN PROGRESS

Bubbled textures can be created in a variety of ways, such as with hand techniques, i.e., ruching, or automated, commonly with slip stitch designs, with machine and yarn tolerance a consideration when having multiple stitches and rows skipped for at times an impressive number of times.
A reminder of the differences between slip and tuck stitch formations.
In both, stitches in non-selected needles grow in length until they are knit again. In slip stitch, needles are skipped, forming floats (bottom knit/purl illustrations), while in tuck stitch (top illustrations), loops are built up in the same needle hooks as the held stitches, making for a less forgiving repeating needle no-selection choices. This repeat, with tuck happening for four rows, began with a 6X24 PNG. Loaded into ArahPaint, it was drawn in a brick repeat, with a final PNG of 24X48, which in turn needs to be color-reversed to be used for tuck stitch. Punch card machine users need to punch all the black cells. 
The swatch was test-knit on 53 stitches, using a 2/8 wool, and measures 7.75 inches in width. Using the same yarn, color, and tension, wondering about making the texture more pronounced, I tested the same repeat with manually selected FI patterning, which produces a narrower width than stocking stitch. A programmable PNG, 6X48charted for punch card knitting.  The swatch measures approximately half an inch less in width than the first sample.  My stash of knittable elastic is extremely limited. Continuing to explore making small changes and exploring their effect, here the same design repeat was used, with elastic as one of the 2 yarns in the FI bands. The repeat is changed to standard as opposed to brick configuration, with textures lining up vertically. The width of the swatch, knit on the same # of stitches as the last sample, measures 6 inches in width as opposed to the non-elastic FI version’s 7.5, with a loss of .75 inches in comparable knit pattern height. The main yarn was switched to 2/20 wool, and the pattern was divided by 4 rows knit using only the elastic, with a return to the brick configuration. The work on the machine has a very different appearance when off. The swatch is nearly identical to the last in width, but the shapes collapse, shrinking the overall height. A range of textures, some created using the thread lace setting, can be found in the blog posts:
Knitting with “unusual” fibers/ elastic 3 5/22
Knitting with “unusual” fibers/ elastic 2 8/20
Knitting with “unusual” fibers/ elastic 1 1/20
Balanced designs are not the best to use with the thread lace setting, a sample that began with a 24X24 PNG with added pixels to break up some long potential floats. The elastic is threaded through feeder A, the “bubble” yarn in feeder B, illustrated aside some of the work on the machine, appearing flat and stretched out. The elastic will shrink back when the finished swatch is steamed. The blue yarn is a 2/20 wool; the elastic is from an unmarked cone in my stash, a tad too thick, with a mind of its own, knit on 50 stitches.
End needle selection is canceled. If needles are selected in pattern, they need to be pushed back to the B position so both wool and elastic will knit together.
The finished width after steaming is 4.5 inches.
Whether the shapes are recognizable and wearability are open to question. A more successful swatch, returning to the family, aiming for larger-scale shapes; the yarn is 2/20 wool, the elastic is a 280S cotton wrapped, the starting brick repeat is 24X52. Keeping in mind the respective functions of the black and white pixels, the image is color-inverted for use with the thread lace setting.
Side edges with non-selected needles will knit both yarns together form clean vertical columns ie in this 56X104 repeat.The actual swatch was knit on fewer stitches on one side of 0 than the other, explaining the different side edges, if any needles were selected, they were pushed back to B manually before the next carriage pass. After some light steaming the result is a bubbly texture that measures only 3 inches in width.

To mesh or not to mesh 10: more large eyelet variations provides a review of information in some of my previous posts, and links to information to achieve the combinations shared by others.
The direction of transfers is marked in many of my charts with cyan cells for transfers to the left, and magenta for those to the right.
In these knits, large eyelets are created by side-by-side transfers.
Two empty needles in standard transfer lace may indicate an error, or that the repeat needs to be mirrored, while here, if in testing these patterns, only single stitch eyelets are produced, they indicate the same.
The transfers resulting in side-by-side needles on which loops will form with the next knit carriage pass are circled. The next group of transfer selections will anchor the side-by-side loops.
The repeats mentioned as used on the 930 may need horizontal mirroring, depending on the machine model or the download software.
The 32X24 design produces a vertical column of small eyelets on a field of larger ones.  The eyelet placements are planned this way, but the full repeat, 32X24, needed mirroring horizontally for use on the 930The work on the machine: after the side-by-side transfer in opposite directions is made, there will be a loop on each empty needle hook. The usual second pass with the knit carriage repeats the loop formation, and the first pair of loops is dropped. The choice can be made to keep the dropped loops, forming visual ladders, or to lift them onto the hooks so that when they are secured by the next pair of transfers, the edges of the eyelets form cleaner rounds.
Here, the dropped loops are undisturbed.
A potential troublesome spot is those loops getting hung up on gate pegs, so a light color is useful when first experimenting. As the return to transfers is made, the transferred stitches will anchor down the side-by-side loops as new double transfers are executed.   Vertical columns formed by small eyelets on a large eyelet ground, mirrored for use on 930 to this 32X24. Vertical column formed by large eyelets on a chevron ground, for knit side borders of any size, cast on a larger number of needles than in the width of your programmed lace repeat, here a 24X32 repeat is centered on 32 stitches, as used on the 930. Creating shapes: in Seasonal knits inspired by published repeats 2_hearts, 36X88,  used a combination of large mesh and single transfers to create the heart shape. 

 

One of the many differences between automated machine-knit transfer lace and hand-knit lace is that the alternate direction of transfers in machine-knit lace occurs after the first is completed and followed by knit rows separating the eyelets, so there is always a slight shift in horizontal lines formed by them.
In hand-knitting or when stitches are manually transferred in both directions on the machine before knitting any additional rows, the appearance is noticeably different to purists and closer to hand-knit.
To truly match some of the transfers, stitches need to be removed from their respective needles, and other stitches are placed on the empty needles before the removed stitch is restored to its place. That is not an automatic function, but an added hand technique.
Changes in aspect ratio are often accompany knit structures and are seen in lace as well, more noticeable when one begins to use representational motifs, as in these recent cases, flowers.
There are so many sources available for designs, one need not necessarily build motifs from scratch, and they can be made more personal with modifications.
After choosing the base mesh, math may be used to change the scale of the superimposed shape.
Using small designs to test differences in results, one way to simply change the result is to multiply the height of the original shape by X3, with or without also doubling its width, thus approaching the 4X6 ratio often attributed to knit stitches other than garter.
The designs are programmed as fair isle in electronic models, which often automatically mirror the design horizontally.
Ways to modify electronic and punch card published transfer lace designs 6/26 returned to a partial image of a card used in 2011 as a mock filet mesh with traditional LC operation from the left side.
For the bse mesh, the LC makes 2 passes for transfers to the left, 4 passes for transfers to the right, each sequence is followed by two knit rows using the knit carriage operating from the right.
With the punchard located, the repeat was rebuilt using Mac Numbers, and a combination of ArahPaint and Gimp to reproduce the 24X162 file as a PNG. A 24X84 segment was, in turn, isolated, drawn in brick repeat, 24X168.  The swatch, tested on 60 stitches, helps to determine whether other DIY arrangements, i.e., widening the repeat or altering the edges of the shapes for use only on electronic machines, should be made.
For some reason, the yarn used, which had posed no problem in recent swatches, was particularly cranky in transfers. The swatch has several dropped stitches.Using a random flower design from a published source, 18X20 multiplied X2 in height and width, 36X40 4X6 brush fill to use as a background on a 60X60 canvas offers 2 choices, one can be to copy and paste the enlarged flower onto the mesh grid with the white color to alpha,  the other to lock the magenta color, and superimpose copy and paste the 60X60 mesh ground file onto it, not anchoring it in place until the preferred position is found.
36X40 The magenta shape is then bucket-filled with white.
Either method will require some cleanup to reach a programmable, final file size. In this case, for a 60X60 BW PNG.
When tested and drawn in repeat, followed by the decision to bring flower shapes closer together, cropping the design to 44X60 with a couple of shifted pixels in the center of the flower to keep the direction of all transfers the same across horizontal eyelet rows, and then tested.  Different distribution of the shapes: an untested brick repeat, 44X120,  and a half drop 88X60.  Changing the aspect ratio of the flower, an 18X20 slightly different design is multiplied in width by 2, in height by 3, to 36X60,   and superimposed on the 60X60 mesh ground with magenta bucket filled with white,  the tested repeat cropped to 48X60, produces a slight change in overall appearance,  adding the change in scale to the list of potential choices in DIY designs, if larger repeats are preferred, this previews the brick version, but the half drop needs work. Early Brother electronic machines, i.e., the 910s, used mylar sheets.
Any programmed design was automatically mirrored horizontally to avoid having images, i.e., text, appear in the wrong orientation on the knit face. When looking at images that accompany files, the direction of the motifs in the program is the mirror of those shared in the accompanying swatch.
The charted image is what appears on the purl side, facing the knitter.
Some download programs will automatically mirror any file, adding to confusion as to whether that is required in some instances.
A way to test whether mirroring is again required in your software/machine model is to program the desired mesh, knit a small swatch, and there should be no side-by-side needle selection.
A simple button selection on electronic models can flip the image horizontally if needed. My preference is to alter the PNG and save it before programming it, to avoid errors in larger pieces, or later returns to the design, since I am not always the best note keeper.
From Brother Electroknit Lace Patterns 3, two larger-scale patterns that are published on a rectangular grid show the mirroring of the design in the final knit and the change in aspect ratio.
Conversions to BW PNGs

60X132120X132
The appearance of the edges of the knit stitch shapes takes on the more familiar look of their edges as seen in my own shared designs. 
60X120
120X120 Ancient magazines are easily found online for browsing and inspiration.
Now tired of flowers, this Knitking magazine published a pattern that included a sailboat design, which caught my eye. Visually, the card offered clues as to a possible problem with the mesh ground, but initially, the only change that was made was to the starting row, as seen on the BW chart on the right.Additional clues are also in the tiled 24X56 PNG, and here are those knit stripes breaking up the ground behind the sails. It is not possible to know whether errata were ever published for the card, or whether the outfit may even have been knit on an electronic model.
If there is a fondness for the design, the background can be adjusted to maintain a consistent mesh while keeping the punch card 24 stitch constraint.
A close-up of the garment’s texture. The new 24X54 mirrored design attempting to duplicate it.  The result allows for a closer look at eyelet placements and further editing based on their distribution if desired. Some of the historically related posts:
To mesh or not to mesh 15/11To mesh or not to mesh 2 5/11

To mesh or not to mesh 3 5/11

To mesh or not to mesh 4 5/11
To mesh or not to mesh 5 7/17 a collection of mesh design repeats To mesh or not to mesh 6: chevrons 6/20

Lace knitting tips, to mesh or not to mesh 7 7/20
To mesh or not to mesh 8: more Numbers meet Gimp 5/21
To mesh or not to mesh 9: more on mock filet design 12/21

Unconventional uses for punchcards 2: thread lace cards for “filet” mesh 8/17