4/23/18: inspiration source is from a Russian pin, bottom left #198 The first swatch, produced with manual selection, and varying the number of rows between racking to establish yarn tolerance There are single rows of knitting on both beds, so the option of using 2 knit carriages is out of the running. My test swatch … Continue reading Combining knit carriage needle selection with racking
I am often surprised when I return to visiting past ideas and discover how long I have actually been blogging. My temporary obsession with lace leaves began in 2011. In 2016 Vogue knitting published what appeared to me to be an interesting pattern for a leaf lace variant combining dropped stitches and lace transfers. Below, … Continue reading A new “leaf” lace
I have gotten used to seeing charts for crochet in the round, and prefer charts to written instructions in knitting as well. My hand knitting has usually been project-oriented in terms of experimentation or exploration. Reviewing the information provided by both Zimmermann and Thomas in their early publications has led me to new appreciation and … Continue reading Return to circles, knit “pies”, miters and spirals 4
I began a series of posts on miters and spirals created on the knitting machine back in 2011. The oldest posts, knitting math and pies, back to that pie, a bit of holding, and revisiting miters and spirals to form varied shapes begin to address creating flat circles in machine knitting using holding techniques. Hand-knitting … Continue reading Return to circles, knit and crochet “pies” 1
A “how might this be done challenge” of late re this fabric brought to mind racked patterns for chevrons, both vertical and horizontal, and the possibility of producing them on home knitting machines. To review some of the principles in racking in both Brother and Passap knitting machines: the pitch is the distance between each needle groove … Continue reading Ribber pitch, a bit on racking 1: chevrons/ horizontal herringbone
A friend recently posted a forum query on a published pattern that has led to my exploring another hand to machine knit transfer lace. The “flemish block lace” design from the second treasury of knitting patterns by Barbara Walker, p. 270 seemed to be the lace pattern motif used. Here is a partial detail from the fabric that began … Continue reading A block lace pattern on the KM 1
RIBBED, FOLDING PLEATS result from varying the needle arrangement on both beds, usually in every needle rib. As with any knit fabric, the knit piece will fold toward the purl side along the length of the piece, not away from it. The bend can be put permanently into the fabric by leaving one or more … Continue reading Pleats: ribbed , folding fabrics
A simple chart, from a random Japanese publication the isolated repeat outlined symbols used of note: in the above pattern, all transfers are in the same direction. My test swatches were knit on bulky 260 KM. Held stitches form loops on top of needles brought out to E position. The original stitch formerly in the needle hook grows … Continue reading Combining tuck stitches with lace 1
Just about 2 years ago, I had an obsession with leaf shapes in lace and wrote a series of posts on approaches to both designing them and rendering them in knit on more than one machine. From a ladder and lace early post. Recent publications reflect the increasing interest in bulkier knits and combining ladder … Continue reading Ladders with lace, “making things work” 1
A while ago the image of a sweater attributed to Armani caught my attention on Pinterest, and I became obsessed with creating a variant. Lace is actually an interesting 3D fabric until it is blocked and made to lie flat. I went the lace route to work out my “scales”. The swatch I created below is hand-knit … Continue reading A swatch experiment