I recently came across this topic in yet another forum, so thought I would share some of my thoughts on it. The technique involves different patterns on 2 opposing beds. Table for 2 offered one option for programming 2 different knitting machine beds to achieve reversible DBJ or true tubular fair isle. I will be … Continue reading Tubular machine knit fabrics: fair isle, Brother/Passap
I have recently become obsessed with designs that fool the eye in any number of ways, and although knitting them in more than 2 colors is possible, I prefer the ease of only using 2. Floats are likely to be too long in these knitting patterns for knitting them as single bed fair isle. Software … Continue reading Developing 24 stitch optical illusion patterns for use on punchcard machines and more.
Periodically the question of printing blank templates for DIY drawings or images from published sources to scale to produce traceable images used to mark cards for punching is asked in forums and very recently in Ravelry. I primarily use Apple and open-source free software in my work. Creating knit graph paper on Mac, using Excel … Continue reading Mac experiments on printing needle tapes and punchcard templates to scale and other tips
The latest version of Gimp for Mac includes many small changes which come with no announcements and take a bit of sorting out to recognize or problem-solve. There are good collections of Youtube videos intended for use on much larger files, with fewer color restrictions than images used for knitting. A dock is a container … Continue reading Gimp 4, pattern fill, dithered portraits, and more.
Reviewing ToolsGuess weave from Grid ArahPaint continues to be user-friendly for multiple applications including knit design. The developer shares how-to videos that are frequently updated https://www.arahne.si/public/news/ https://www.youtube.com/@arahpaint4/videos The same holds for their downloadable manual, and any questions are answered in a timely and informative manner. I am often driven by knit technique curiosity first, then … Continue reading ArahPaint in knit design 4
Punchcard machine users have limitations in terms of repeat width, depending on the brand and age of the machine. Those numbers might vary from 8 to 12, 18, 30, and 40, with a 24-stitch width eventually becoming the most frequent. When electronic machines were first released decades ago, multiple built-in functions allowed one to manipulate … Continue reading Developing tiled repeats suitable for multiple stitch types, including tuck
Previously published: ArahPaint and Gimp in knit design 2 ArahPaint meets Gimp in knit design 1 Subsequent posts on using Gimp Layers to process images: Using Layers in Gimp for color separations Layer/Transparency/Color to Alpha Gimp Update for Mac 3_more on color separations Gimp allows one to work on multiple images with only a single window … Continue reading ArahPaint and Gimp in knit design 3
My previous post, ArahPaint meets Gimp in knit design 1, provided some information based on the assumption the reader had previous experience with a paint program, more specifically, Gimp, and an understanding of the development of knit repeats for various stitch types and techniques. At the time I had planned on expanding it. The information … Continue reading ArahPaint and Gimp in knit design 2
Fantasy fair isle is the term often used to refer to dbj fabrics created using tuck settings on either or both beds. Typically in the required color separation used each design row in the repeat is expanded into 4 rows, with the same selection occurring for each color pair of consecutive rows. A tuck/plain combination … Continue reading More shapes on ribber fabrics with tuck patterning, fantasy fair isle
Questions regularly turn up asking what software we use as individuals to design repeats for our knitting. Up to this point, I have worked exclusively on a Mac unless downloading to my Passap with Wincrea, an ancient laptop, and as old a version of Windows. I have been a Gimp user for eons, it is … Continue reading ArahPaint meets Gimp in knit design 1