Category: Knitting Symbols

HK pattern, software charting.

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

In the 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 the 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 the 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 in 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 the 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.

Symbols to punchcard 1

In the chart below pattern repeats take into account the punchcard limitation of 24 stitch maximum repeat. In the sections separated by the color stripe, the bottom shows a purl side symbol chart for slip stitch, the center the purl side symbol chart for brioche/ tuck stitch, the top the repeat punched out for use on the KM with black dots representing punched holes. Keeping in mind there is a 36 row minimum for the card to roll adequately through reader, this repeat would need to be punched 9 times. If one wants to use the color changes in other than totally random manner, then the pattern repeat must be an even number of rows in height. One option is to use double length, but unless the yarn used in the repeat below is very thin, for tuck stitch that may be beyond the limit of the KM. I also prefer when knitting lengths of fabric not to use elongation; for me that makes it easier to correct mistakes. A reminder: the punchcard selection mirrors the design horizontally (particularly noticeable in letters), so the hand knit repeat need not be reversed for a match.

Below is a more manageable tuck repeat reconsidered for color changes (shown in change of ground behind punched holes). The first row selection needs to be from right to left toward the color changer in Japanese machines (Passap is on right, but console takes that into account). This is not the only color change sequence possible, only a place to start.

With very rare exceptions, tuck stitches generally must have a knit stitch/punched hole on either side of the unpunched square. This is because side by side loops jump off on the next pass, rather than knitting off in a group, making a long float in in some cases an interesting mess. Because slip stitch skips needles creating floats rather than depositing loops in needle hooks, the tolerance for side by side slipped stitches if far greater, and the number of rows that the individual stitches are not knit is limited by the strength of the yarn, and the tolerance in the machine. Both tuck and slip stitch fabrics benefit from being evenly weighted, with weights being moved up regularly during knitting. Canceling end needle selection and having the pattern repeats line up with tuck/slip on each edge may produce interesting side edges. If texture is the goal yarns that can be “killed” by pressing/steaming should be avoided.

Hand to machine, symbols 2

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

.

November 2015 PS: the charts such as the one immediately above were created using Intwined Pattern Studio and my own custom made stitch symbols. The program on Mac not long after became unusable due to the presence of custom made stitches in library, took multiple efforts to restore without their presence, and there have been no updates since then to address this, or any of the other issues. More information and reviews may be found on ravelry.

Hand to machine knitting, symbols 1

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 the top right of the second column, there is a bit of confused identity.

Over the years there has been an interesting transition from handwritten stitch by stitch instructions to the introduction of symbols ranging from homegrown on graph paper, to simple word processing and later software generated ones. Some international differences occurred in published works, and internationally 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 the color background for them in the program itself rather than editing the chart image after the fact.

To download Inkscape: site. The workaround 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 from February 25, 2012 “back to lace”.

Back to lace

Recently I came across a photo in a magazine with what I thought of at the time as an unusual knit leaf. One of my first instincts upon viewing such patters is often to explore whether I might be able to reproduce the knit on the machine more quickly and whether in addition there may be a way to “automate the design” by coming up with a repeat that would work with the use of the lace carriage. I will share some of the many ways to explore such transitions in a series of posts. As written they will specifically apply to knitting on Brother/Knitking/Taitexma brand knitting machines.

The original “culprit” pattern:

One way to interpret those triple stitches leaning to the right and left in HK is to knit three together for right-leaning, and slip, knit two together, PSSO for left-leaning on RS (“right” /knit side). The same steps on the KM would involve moving around those triple stitches to achieve the correct lean of the leaf edge on the knit side of the fabric. The number of rows for transfers to achieve a similar look makes the fabric impractical to knit using a lace carriage on the KM, so back to hand knitting.

In yet another instance of “it’s a small world” since I first came upon the repeat and began looking for interpretations, I did find several hand-knit patterns on Ravelry and some magazines using the same or similar motif.

The pattern repeat in my first hand-knit sample in a 4.5/inch gauge wool

In turn, this led to my developing my own repeat design, which is now on 2 needles, becoming a scarf for my granddaughter, which can be shared in the future.

I work predominantly on a Mac, OS Lion. Last year finally got turned on to using excel for knit design after finding excellent online tutorials such as those by Marnie MacLean and Fleegle’s blog. Over the past week I finally got around to playing with iWork, using Numbers instead of excel, and in conjunction with Pages have come up with final images such as the ones below. Am pretty much flying by the seat of my pants in this, so I can’t really share a step-by-step method but have been pleased with the instinctive qualities of the Apple programs and the results.

In subsequent graphs: blue represents knit as it appears and may be worked on the knit side, while pink represents how the knit appears and may be worked on the purl side, and as such on the KM to achieve the same design

Common Lace transfers and symbols

moving multiple stitches

now: starting to play with a hand-knit repeat with the intent of translating it for use on the KM: triple stitches in one location in any single row are eliminated, as well as sets of double lace holes in any single row while retaining the diagonally slanting leaf motif

garter stitch will be eliminated by adding a needle out of work in its place, creating a ladder space between repeats; repeat will be adjusted to work within restraints of punchcard limitations in terms of stitch width and row height requirements, more on next post.

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Knit terms: translations

Prior to google translate, google chrome, etc. barring having friends that spoke the language and knit, there were some resources for translations:
Brother: Japanese symbols for knitting (booklet)
Key to Japanese patterns by Jody Foster (booklet)
Japanese for machine knitters by Mary weaver  (book 1983), now partially available for free download online 
Knitting Languages by Margaret Heathman (book 1996) includes limited vocabularies in 10 languages

August 1/2020 update:
Garnstudio knitting terms translated into 17 languages; their glossary of knitting terms 
another international glossary of knitting terms 

a few in ItalianGerman

From/for different countries
http://www.knittingfool.com/Reference/KF_Symbols.aspx
Anna Burda magazine symbols PDF includes HK how-to illustrations:  ab2  2/1/15
Verena chart from older pubs easily found on Pinterest

Russian to English 

Japanese
tata-tatao for Japanese basics and charts
dancingbarefoot’s japanese pattern tutorials
series of topics updated 2020 link Clearwater knits 
Fleegle’s blogspot
garment instructions 

Machine knitting: some grabs from electronic and punchcards books follow, giving an indication of the variety of fabrics that may be produced on Japanese knitting machines. They are in a large format for easier visibility. The names of some of the stitch types have evolved over the years or differed from one brand of KM to another. From Silver Reed publications

and from Brother 

In addition, for English machine knitting abbreviations see Jessica-tromp.nl and  sewwhatyvette.com

Using punchcards to track small cables in pattern (1)

Symbols in knitting have evolved considerably through the years since the day when all instructions were longhand and it was abbreviations used that would need de-coding. This is true of cables as well.
I came across a magazine graph that led me to explore its conversions from hand to machine.
In the BW original graph cable stitches are represented by solid lines and dashed lines, and stitches are moved in the direction of the upward slant.
The “needles” with the solid lines will be moved first, and the dashed lines will follow to replace/fill the empty needles.
The repeat below is 64 rows high, so if a card is used it would need to be created in two pieces, the last row on the graph is not part of the repeat itself.
As is seen in knit alphabets, however, punchcard patterns are mirrored vertically when the design is executed.
That needs to be kept in mind if punched holes are used to track the cable repeats, particularly in complex arans.
Assuming mirroring is required to match movements in the hand-knit original graph, colored cells representing punched holes in the first colored card repeat are also mirrored. Using the card
green color blocks :
the left half of the crossed stitches are moved first, taken off on the tool, held to the side
the right half of the crossed stitches follow and are placed on the empty needles on the left
the first held stitches in turn are then placed on needles now empty needles on the right
magenta color blocks :
the right half of the crossed stitches are moved first, taken off on the tool, held to the side
the left half of the crossed stitches follow and are placed on the empty needles on the right
the first-held stitches in turn are then placed on needles now empty on the left
The markings on the punchcard machine’s needle tape correspond to needle selection for 24 stitch repeat, and that can be used as a guide, needles selected are intended to move toward the center at the bottom of each half repeat, and away from it in the top half, creating the diamonds.
If electronics are used and the repeats are other than 24 stitches wide, the needle tape may be marked with a water-soluble pen or removable color tape strips may be placed between the needles that are first and last in each repeat.
The initial imagined diamond shape is tiled in width.   The start of a possible chevron shape  Those 3X3 cables are likely not easy to knit, especially after only one all-knit row. One alternative would be removing the crossing, disregarding the 6-needle preselection, thus adding another knit row between any 2X2 crossings.  In writing a 2022 post on using Numbers and Gimp for charting cables and revisiting this post I realized there was an alignment error at the top of the punchcard repeat used to knit the earlier associated swatch. The image below now has the problem area in the card marked.
A circle also marks the spot where operator error occurred with some twists made in the wrong direction,  The amended, now rendered 72 rows tall card: 2024: The result of further editing, a table representing the direction of the stitch brought forward in each crossing, while the magenta numbered cells indicate spots where the crossings begin to reverse direction. All crossings are now planned 1X1. The top 2 rows from the above chart have been shifted down to the bottom to create a point at the start of the diamond shapes, and the resulting repeat is tiled to check alignment and possibly ready for printing a guide.  The associated 24X72 PNG and markings in 6 stitch blocks for punchcard users The proof of concept swatch:
Such techniques may be used in isolated portions of garments instead of all over.
A “simplified” interpretation of a similar knit pattern is seen below. Related posts:
Using punchcards to track cables and twists in pattern 2 
Using punchcards (3) or electronics to track small cables in pattern

 

Using punchcards to track cables and twists in pattern 2

This post was originally written intended for punchcard machines only, with the passage of time electronic pattern tracking, samples and associated repeats were shared.
Links to some later posts including cable manipulation and patterning
2023/05/30/a-return-to-plaiting-and-double-bed-hand-transfers/
2021/03/11/slip-stitch-patterns-with-hand-transferred-stitches-double-bed/
2021/02/01/slip-stitch-patterns-with-hand-transferred-stitches/
2021/05/09/double-bed-embossed-patterns/
2012/01/19/using-punchcards-to-track-small-cables-in-pattern-1/ 

2011: Cables seem to be in vogue once again in myriad permutations. They pose some interesting issues when created in machine knitting. Interweave Knits Winter 2011 published an article on “Cables 101” that includes a way to color code and graph cable crossings. “Back in the day” of regular, worldwide machine knitting seminars, several authors provided collections of machine-knit cables including George Le Warre at Passap universities (copyrighted, George presently in England).

Simple crossings are a good place to begin and produce texture. If one is not interested in freeform but rather constant, recurring patterns it is possible to use punchcards to produce visual cues when stitch twists and crossings are to occur. This is not an option in Studio Machines, easy on Brother because of the fact that needles pre-select, and Passap pushers may be used for a similar set of clues with a bit more fiddling.

When color-coding information for referencing as one knits, it is possible to be generous with symbols or edit down to bare elements. For example, one way to approach a schematic follows below, where knit stitches are illustrated as well as cable crossings. Red indicates stitches moved to the front, and the green indicates those traveling to the back in each cable set. In hand knitting, vertical or horizontal bars would represent knit and purl stitches. Since these are identical in this HK graph, they could all be eliminated

A

B the isolated repeat

The choice then remains whether or not to revert the crossings to match the HK pattern. One way to do that is simply to reverse positions for colors. The mantra becomes “red moves first, green moves second and over red”.

With all machines, if the knit carriage is left set for normal knit, even if the patterning option is engaged (KCI or KCII if there are any needles out of work) needles will be selected, but the fabric produced is stocking stitch. The usual considerations are in order: the number viewed on the card outside the machine corresponds to the design row being read by the reader, but the punchcard holes in view are not necessarily the same as the design row selected. Because one is producing the cables on the purl side of the knit, if hand knitting charts are used the cables themselves will be mirrored. In many instances, this may not matter, but if one is using the twists for representational crosses ie. in trees, owls, diamonds, and other geometric shapes, it is a good idea to scan the repeat, mirror the image vertically, and then begin translating it into machine knit interpretations. Relatively easy with simple scanning and printing software (ie. the flip horizontal function in Preview, a bit harder by hand.

When I can I color code my cards: ie. with lace I draw a line across the card when I reach each knit row sequence with a color pencil. This provides me with an easy-to-follow visual cue as to when the rows must occur, and also facilitates returning to the previous selection sequence when mistakes in patterning occur.

Some basics: with a punchcard, there is no row length limitation, but repeats are limited to 24 or a factor thereof. In this particular use wherever needles are selected, one has a visual reminder to move those needles in the desired direction.

I used the cards below to illustrate the idea in my intro to knitting classes. When needle selection occurs in the first, remove the selected stitches off the machine with a 3 prong tool in each desired location, then insert a second 3 prong tool back through the front of those same stitches, in turn removing from the initial tool used. Rotate the twice transferred stitches 180 degrees consistently either clockwise or counter-clockwise throughout, and return them to their original position on the needle bed. The result is a consistently textured fabric with no counting stitches or rows between repeats.

a swatch using it

This card begins to address regular cable crossings, mine was punched in repeat the full 60 rows. Color may be assigned to help with opposing twists’ directions ie. to left (pink) or to right (green) when the corresponding color bar appears just above the card reader.