Month: July 2018

Hello and happy Friday! It’s the second to last Extreme Double-knitting pattern highlight post, and things are starting to heat up … or maybe that’s because I did the photo shoot on Easter weekend in Atlanta.

Pattern #11: Vasily

I love the fact that temperatures don’t come through in photos. You might never guess that it was in the upper 80s when this photo was taken.

Vasily is the double-knit cabled hat that appears on the cover of the revised edition. While the version on the cover is the original (and that is still an option in the pattern) I had always felt that the pattern didn’t show its reversibility (and therefore its whole reason for being double-knit) very well.

As with the other hats, the best way to show reversibility in a hat is to make sure that the brim can fold up. Since this fabric is fairly thick to begin with (even in a sport weight yarn, double-knit cables end up thick at the crossings), doubling it seemed a little ridiculous. Also, the two layers honestly don’t look appreciably different.

While playing with the fabric, I decided to try something different. I noticed that the gauge of my cabled swatch was almost exactly 2/3 the width of my double-stockinette swatch (for the same CO). This is not a surprise; cables often pull the fabric in, so it’s common to do increases before beginning cables. I had simply never done the math before. With the math done, a new idea came up: why not make a brim that’s not cabled? The repeat is already a multiple of 18 pairs, so it was trivial to make the brim 2/3 of that by casting on a multiple of 12 pairs — then increasing each 2-pair vertical stripe to 3 pairs just before beginning the cables.

The really fun thing was realizing that the brim would cover a significant portion of the cables regardless of which layer was worn to the outside, so it made more sense not to do the cables that would be hidden. This new revision of the Vasily hat has a brim of more than 5″ before the cables begin; the brim is then folded a little more than in half so that it appears that the cables go all the way down even when they don’t. This also means that the hat just fits better.

Pattern #12: Box of Delights

This was probably the most underrated pattern in the original book. The idea behind the pattern was to cram a whole bunch of techniques into a small space, but the execution was not great and the photography was terrible.

I had originally used a bulky yarn on US4 needles to get the fabric density I wanted, but I even admitted in the pattern that this was very difficult and that I broke more than one DPN in the process. This (rightly) scared some people off. In the new revision, I’m using US5 needles with an aran-weight yarn — so, still dense but not as much so. In order to increase the fabric’s rigidity, I used a modification of the two-pattern technique (see post #4 for more on that) to keep the inside of the box a solid color.

In addition, I both simplified the start of the pattern and created a cute little knob for the top of the box in a single step! The knob is just barely visible in the photo above, but you can see it in more detail on the Box of Delights pattern page.

Once the pattern was redesigned and reknit, the other major weakness of the original pattern was the terrible photography. Fortunately, my model had plenty of jewelry, candles and mirrors available so it was trivial to stage something much nicer. I hope that the new redesign and the upgraded photos will get more people to try out this pattern!

What Else is New?

As I alluded to in the previous post, I had been having difficulty getting my tech editor to respond over the past several weeks. Predictably, she replied within two hours of that post going live. So this week, I’ve got some actual progress to report!

In the past week, I began combing the manuscript for formatting issues and integrating suggestions I’ve collected from various people who have seen various parts of the manuscript. I have a prolific friend who just learned double-knitting from me earlier this year and wanted to test-knit the Footsies pattern (about which you can read in next week’s post). She had some good input on various elements of that pattern and the associated technique instructions, some of which I have integrated. The suggestions she made had a ripple effect through other parts of the book as well.

Tonight I’ve been spending time making little tweaks to the manuscript based on my tech editor’s input; the first 4 chapters and associated patterns were delivered a few days ago and I expect the rest shortly. I will be heading to Stitches Midwest next weekend, and I am hoping to have the majority of the editing done before then so I can send the work off to the printer more or less as soon as I return.

In other news, I will be appearing at both California Stitches events, and both of them are currently open for registration! I have no idea how my numbers are looking under the hood, but all of my classes at Stitches SoCal in 2018 (and of course Stitches West in 2019, which just opened registration) have room in them — so have at it! Stay tuned for more workshop announcements as contracts come in.

Hope you’re enjoying the posts — please preorder Extreme Double-knitting if you haven’t already! Stay tuned for the final pattern highlight post next Friday (and if you’re just joining us, use the navigation below to check out the previous 5 posts highlighting 10 more patterns from the new revision! Thanks!

Happy Friday! We’re over halfway through the Extreme Double-knitting highlight reel and it’s time to get into some really colorful stuff! The next three patterns are my first three-color designs, but as with some of the other patterns here, I found it refreshing to go back and look at them with new eyes. The two in this post have been heavily redesigned in some interesting ways. If you like what you see, please consider preordering the book from my site!

Pattern #9: Struktur v2

When I used to show off the original version of this hat at trunk shows, the “trick” I would do would be to fold up the brim and then set the hat upside-down with the crown in my palm. It held its shape perfectly — more of a bowl than a hat, to be honest. This was due to a number of factors: the yarn choice (Cascade 220), the stitch orientation (twisted) and the simple fact that it’s done in three-color double-knitting. All of these went together to make a relatively rigid, dense, thick fabric. Great for a bowl, not so much for a hat. If you could manage to control your tension well enough that the hat remained somewhat stretchy, it would still be about 5 layers thick at the brim fold, and when those layers are in worsted weight yarn, the fabric is ridiculously thick. Even more so when the stitches were twisted, which makes them more square but also makes them a little thicker.

I used twisted stitches especially with three-color double-knitting because of a misguided attempt to hide the internal strands. I reasoned that it would be a good idea to reduce the number of holes in the fabric (most often visible when stretched) by removing the holes in the centers of stitches. I liked the look of the twisted stitches, and chose to keep using them even after I learned to control them better, especially in multi-color work.

However, I have done some very nice three-color patterns since then without any such conceit and the strands are no more visible there than in the twisted pieces — and the twisted stitches were a barrier to entry so I removed them as a requirement.

Similar to the Four Winds revision (but with somewhat more urgency), I wanted to make the default fabric less bulky so I opted to remake it in Cascade 220 Sport. Predictably, this changed the gauge, which necessitated a redesign of the pattern. Rather than using the same chart I used in the original, I reworked it from scratch to make a smaller repeat so that this new revision can be sized more easily.

Pattern #10: Falling Blocks

This pattern has long been sort of a signature piece — a combination of two unusual double-knitting techniques that are actually related. Having done three-color double-knitting and two-pattern double-knitting, the natural progression was to do them both together. The result was a hat with two radically different three-color patterns on either layer. Similar to Struktur, I had designed the original in twisted stitches. Because of the yarn choice (Berroco Ultra Alpaca), it was not as rigid and more wearable — but still so dense that it was hard to hear while wearing it due to the number of layers folded over your ears.

The interesting thing about redoing this piece in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light was that the gauge of the original yarn in twisted stitches and the gauge of the new yarn in untwisted stitches ended up being identical. So the basic pattern didn’t require a rewrite (hence no “v2” in the title). However, that wasn’t all I wanted to change.

In the original pattern, I didn’t have the time or the expertise to figure out how to work the crown decreases in both patterns, so I made a graceful transition from one pattern to a color-rotated version of the other; the crown operated in a similar way to the Struktur hat above. This time, with more time and more expertise, I decided I would find a way to make the patterns on both layers decrease all the way to the crown. The process for this was interesting and hard to describe, but suffice it to say I completed it.

The new crown required a new concept of two-pattern decreasing too — if the two layers have no logical connection (i.e. you can no longer say that if Layer 1 is Color A, Layer 2 must be Color B), then decreases also need not have any logical connection. In other words, a left-slanting decrease on one layer may have a mirror-image decrease on the other layer — or a decrease in the other direction, depending on the needs of the pattern in that location. This allowed me to chart two-pattern decreases in a more intuitive way as well.

What Else is New?

Without naming names, I’m seriously considering going to print without a tech editor. My tech editor has not been in touch with me for the better part of a month. I have written to her specifically asking for updates twice and have heard nothing back. To be fair, I gave her no specific deadline, but I did explain the timeline I was hoping for and she said it seemed reasonable. I have worked with her before and I know she does good work and respects my time as well. I can only assume something is going on in her life that is keeping her from doing the quality of work I am used to. However, if she won’t communicate, I can’t know what my ETA is for having a final manuscript to print. I am OK shifting the print date later if need be, but I would really like to have it out by Rhinebeck.

So what would it mean to have a book printed without tech editing? Well, in this case, it wouldn’t be so bad. This is not an entirely new book. The original text was tech edited, and many of the patterns have been exhaustively tested by regular knitters who’ve been working from the original book, as well as sample knitters who have knitted the newest pattern revisions. Yes, there is new text, some new photos, and some newly-redesigned patterns. It is possible that there are some small mistakes in the patterns. This would mean that some people will be confused and errata will be posted. If I am lucky enough to have a second printing, I will have the opportunity to integrate those errata into that printing. I don’t like using my readers/knitters as guinea pigs, but it’s not quite as bad as it might have been if the book were entirely unvetted. Also, the people who knit my patterns are (by and large) more resilient, creative, and adventurous than your average knitter — so any missteps will probably be taken in stride.

Predictable update: My tech editor got in touch with me about an hour and a half after this post went live. She is on schedule so we are also on schedule! More substantive updates on this front next week!

Stay tuned for more updates next Friday, and thanks for your interest! Don’t forget to preorder your copy of Extreme Double-knitting soon!

 

Thanks for keeping up with my Extreme Double-knitting pattern highlights! Today we’re going to dig into one of my most sought-after techniques, and one of the patterns that’s taken a radical turn from the original. If you like what you see, consider preordering a copy!

Pattern #7: Open For Business

Open For Business is a sign, most often used in yarn shops. As such signs are wont to do, one layer says “open” while the other says “closed”. This is achieved by using two-pattern double-knitting for the entire pair of words. The chart is challenging to follow simply because of the sheer quantity of two-pattern charting — but a careful eye will follow it easily.

This pattern is not the one that’s taken a radical turn from the original. In fact, aside from recharting to make the pattern fit better in the oblong layout, it’s not changed at all from the original. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even re-knit it.

What has changed is the mounting solution. Since this is a sign, it has to be mounted so that it remains flat. The solution I came up with in the original book involved a couple of bent coat-hangers inserted strategically into the sides of the piece and the sides sewn up over them. The trouble with this solution was that the sharp-ish ends of the coat-hanger would tend to poke out, and it was hard to keep it actually flat.

What I saw many people do was to mount it on a pair of dowels so that one would hold the hanging string and the other would weight the bottom. This is easier to explain and looks nicer, so that’s what I did this time.

Pattern #8: Four Winds v2

This is the pattern that has taken a dramatic turn. The reason is twofold. First, many of the hats in my original book were done in worsted weight yarn. This caused the double-knit fabric to be quite a bit thicker than your average (wearable) hat should be. To make a double-knit hat more wearable, it should be done in a finer gauge yarn.

In addition, it turns out that there was a contract issue between Twist Collective (the original publisher of this pattern) and Cooperative Press, which resulted in the termination of my contract with Twist. This was no big loss as I had not been getting much in terms of revenue from this pattern for some time. However, I didn’t want to compound issues by republishing the pattern in the original form again.

For both of those reasons, I decided I needed to redesign this pattern from the ground up. In a sport weight yarn, I could make it more easily sizeable, and make some other changes.

First, the two-pattern lettering (where the cardinal directions are shown) section is now on a fold-up brim. This means that the letters are worked upside-down so they will be right-side up when the brim is folded.

Second, the fleur-de-lis option is entirely hidden in this version — it’s still worked to keep the fabric stable and the knitting interesting, but unless you don’t work the fold-up brim, it won’t be seen while wearing it.

Third, the points of the compass are now only in off-the-grid double-knitting. If there’s a big clamor for a plain charted version, I’ll consider this when releasing the standalone pattern later.

Finally, the crown decreases are staggered around the crown so that the crown is less square when it’s done.

All these together make for a better-designed and more wearable hat! I hope you enjoy it!

Like what you’ve seen in this post? Preorder Extreme Double-knitting today!

What else is new?

Not much this week! I’m waiting on a report from my Tech Editor but as of the writing of this post, I haven’t heard any update. Hopefully more on that front next week.

Oh wait — there was one thing: I’m booked at Stitches West (Santa Clara, CA) in February, 2019! I’ve been there the last 3 years, so this is probably no surprise, but I figured I should announce it since it is news.

Stay tuned! And if you’re just joining us now, feel free to visit the previous few posts (see the navigation below) for more info.

Good morning! It’s week #3 in my Extreme Double-knitting Highlight reel, and today I’m fit to be tied. Not really, but since things lined up this way, I’m posting about double-knit neckties. If you like what you see, maybe consider preordering the book?

Double-knit neckties have become kind of a signature concept for me — as a guy, I probably wear ties more often than your average knitter. So when I was brainstorming things to double-knit for the original book outline back in the late 2000s, neckties were not quite as far from the top of my mind as they might have been for others. I had encountered knitted neckties before but never found a truly exciting one. Most neckties had construction that was too complicated (knitting fabric the same shape as a sewn tie and then sewing it together) or too simplistic (not even bothering with the point at the bottom). None of them looked good, and all of them were obviously “knitted ties”. Double-knitting was an obvious solution: it doesn’t curl either horizontally or vertically because the two fabrics cancel out that tendency, and it can be used to do complex color patterns within a simple shaped garment. I took careful measurements of a “real” necktie and made a tie form that could be used to figure proper decrease locations for a necktie of any gauge, then used that to design two neckties:

Pattern #4: Silk City

This necktie and its more complicated brother below share some similarities. Of course, they’re both neckties. The original ones were both done in the same yarn (Crystal Palace Panda Silk, a silk-bamboo-wool blend) which, at the time of my redesigns, had not been discontinued, but had been severely limited in terms of color range. This seemed to me a harbinger of worse things to come, and sure enough, it has now been discontinued completely. I selected it because it was a fingering weight yarn with some silk content. Silk being a common tie-fabric ingredient, I figured this would make a nice necktie. When I had to find a substitute, I noticed that the silk content in this yarn was actually only 5% — something I surely knew back when I designed the original but had forgotten.

So when I chose a new yarn, I wanted something with a higher silk content, but still plain yarn in fingering weight and solid colors. This proved quite challenging, and what I eventually settled on met all but one of those criteria. Jaggerspun Zephyr is a 50/50 wool/silk blend, comes in a variety of lovely colors, and is a plain yarn — in lace weight only. I actually swatched this with lace weight, but as I struggle (with my big man hands) below US1 needles, I was unable to get a good gauge. But I was determined to use this yarn, and I discovered that it makes a really nice fabric if two strands are held together.

The pattern has changed very little from the original. Again, chart notation has changed for clarity — but there was another weird issue that I cannot remember my rationale for. For some reason, I had charted the pattern so that some of the charts had an even number of rows and some odd. This meant that you might end up following a chart beginning with a Layer-2 row (in opposite colors from the chart). This should not confuse a veteran double-knitter, but in a book meant to teach the technique it made no sense. I have fixed this issue in the new revision of the pattern: all charts, as they should, now begin on a Layer-1 row (the “right side”)

Pattern #5: Silk Road

The Silk Road tie was actually an outgrowth of a pattern design adventure I had embarked on many years earlier. You can read about the saga of the Victorian Raffia scarf in an earlier blog post. To make a long story short, when I was denied the opportunity to include that scarf in my original book, I decided to use some of what I had learned to expand on the necktie concept.

The fabric in this necktie helped me develop the “off-the-grid” style I mentioned in the last post. This is an extreme example; due to the all-over pattern of increases and decreases, there isn’t a single stitch traveling vertically in this entire pattern. Every stitch travels at a diagonal in one direction or the other. The spirals are also a little signature move that I have developed further in the patterns Atyria II and Hesperos in my book Double or Nothing. They look complicated, but they’re just a little visual trick that I’ve enjoyed playing with over the years.

The real challenge with this pattern was the decreases in the tie form itself. Combined with the constant increasing and decreasing, there were rows where decreasing simply meant leaving out a couple of increases, and others where it was a little more complicated. There are places where the rapid change in direction causes the fabric to ripple a little bit along the edge; I have done my best to reduce this effect but can’t eliminate it completely.

The main difference in this pattern is in its notation. I will freely admit that I did not have a good understanding of increase notation (decreases were OK) when I wrote the original book. I explained how to follow my notation, but it was not intuitive and definitely not the standard way of expressing increases in a chart. In later revisions of the pattern (which was, for a time, sold as a standalone pattern), I tried to make my notation clearer but kept the underlying issue intact. Eventually, I had an epiphany about how increases should be charted in a colorwork context. In retrospect, since I learned the technique from Kieran Foley‘s patterns, I should have learned from his notation as well rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Later patterns, and especially the ones in Double or Nothing, use the corrected notation. With this revision, Extreme Double-knitting also joins the fold.

What Else is New?

I’ve got one very early update for Boston-area folks. I have not been teaching much in the Boston area, and I know that there are people who would be interested in taking a double-knitting class or 2 with me. The difficulty has been in finding a venue where I can get enough people to make a class worth my while. Most shops around here have been cutting back on teaching — using local talent rather than bringing in national teachers. While I am local, my fees are national-level, so shops need to fill classes to capacity to make them worth their while too. Many shops don’t have the space they’d need. So, while I feel conflicted about cutting the shops out of the picture, I am looking into ways to teach my classes in the Boston area without worrying about low turnout cancelling classes. The plan is to do a huge workshop extravaganza in April or May of 2019: I’ll be teaching two whole weekends, plus evenings spanning the week between those weekends. I’ll be running one of every class I teach, plus one extra intro class, Students will be able to pick and choose which classes they take; I will probably offer a discount for bulk purchasing of classes as well. If you’re interested in learning double-knitting or expanding your skills in it, and you’re in the Boston area or willing to travel here, get in touch with me and I’ll keep you posted.