I promised I’d show this when it was far enough along to get photographed, so here it is, in progress. This pattern will be called Shuti, after the Egyptian hieroglyph depicting a two-feathered headdress. Yeah, it doesn’t look like said hieroglyph, but given that it’s a two-sided feather-and-fan hat, it’s appropriate.
This is done in Artyarns Ensemble, as mentioned in my last post, and is slated for submission to a book they’re working on. The deadline is Sept 1, and I’m sure I’ll have the knitting done well before then. The pattern will be a change for me — entirely in text, not charted, because it’s just a lace pattern. OK, it’s just a lace pattern adapted to double-knitting.
Here’s a neat thing about double-knitting lace. I can make both sides the same color but the nature of the yarn-overs means that the two sides are locked together at the yarn-overs — not at the color-changes, as with normal double-knitting. Sure, I can make the yarn-overs not lock the sides together, but then why would you double-knit it?
More on this pattern later. In the meantime, I’ve been blogged about by Audrey of Audknits.com, who I met at TNNA! I promise not to post every time I get blogged about, but I’m excited!
It’s been a few weeks since TNNA, and the book is still in progress. On target? I’m not sure. In any case, it’ll be out before the big October events. While I’m waiting for word from my publisher, I’m also working on some new patterns.
I mentioned earlier that I had approached Artyarns with interest in submitting a pattern for one of their upcoming one-skein pattern books, this one specifically on hats. Iris was immediately enthusiastic about a submission from me — I have had in mind a concept for a double-knit lace hat, and since Artyarns is often associated with gorgeous lace patterns (but Iris clearly aspires to have more reversible patterns in her yarns), I thought it would be ideal to try one of her yarns for this project.
I chose Ensemble — a luxurious silk-cashmere “blend” (really just a strand of each held together) because I wanted something without so much “aura” and I wasn’t sure I could get a full hat out of a skein of Ultramerino 4. The latter yarn will be great for more traditional double-knit patterns, but the Ensemble lends itself well to the sort of work I wanted to submit. While at TNNA, I selected a couple of skeins of each, deciding to try the Ensemble first and if it didn’t work out, try the Ultramerino afterward.
Yarn for artistic inspiration!
But that wasn’t the end of it! Iris emailed me about a week after TNNA and told me she’d sent me some other yarn to play with, and get inspired by. A little while later, I got this in the mail. The 4 horizontal ones are Ensemble, and the rest are Ultramerino 4.
Iris, I am so grateful that you’re so enthusiastic about my work, and thankful that you value my artistic integrity enough to give me free rein with so much lovely fiber — and I am so looking forward to incorporating more of your yarn into my future designs. The selection you sent me is gorgeous, and I’m already having so much fun with the ensemble of Ensemble I got at TNNA. It’s wonderful stuff, and unexpectedly extremely durable in addition to being softer than anything I’ve ever designed with before.
I don’t have a photo of the piece I’m working on yet — actually, I had to rip it out last night (next time: lifelines! but here’s an unexpected bonus — the yarn doesn’t “kink” after being ripped out!) but I’m really happy with the way it’s coming out and I’ll be posting it up here once I’ve gotten far enough to show off the pattern well.
TNNA was fantastic. Truly an ego-booster, if nothing else. While I’ve grudgingly accepted my popularity as a designer and teacher in my local area, I’ve always subconsciously assumed that my work won’t hold up on the national and international stage.
Wrong, evidently.
A few musings from TNNA:
I found out that the easiest way to be approached by TNNA attendees was to be seen knitting either of my WIPs. Shop owners, exhibitors and other designers all gravitated toward them. Perhaps it was the novelty of a man knitting — even at TNNA, most of the men seem to be in the business end of things, not actively knitting — but I’d like to think it was primarily the merit of the pieces themselves.
While we were unable to take pre-orders for Extreme Double-Knitting at the event due to unresolved issues about price, we had an outpouring of interest from all corners and I am optimistic that we will have copies for sale by August — and probably digital versions even before then. Shannon is exploring all printing options at the moment.
As I traveled around and networked with people, I felt myself coming into my own as a designer, not just a technique guru. One person asked if I could design another double-knit tie for a kit; another asked if I could design something in DK or worsted weight yarn for their magazine; yet another wants me to release a pattern accompanied by a DVD with tutorials on the techniques; and Iris Schreier of ArtYarns lavished praise and yarn on me when I visited to express interest in submitting a hat for an upcoming publication.
When attending TNNA as a loner for the first time (yes, I was working a booth, but other than that I had few ways of attracting attention), it’s great to have a friend who’s well-connected pave the way for you by telling everyone she meets about your work. Even better when she works as a social-media specialist for a major publication. Thanks, Kimberly! Also, Cat Bordhi talked me up in one of her workshops, which got several folks to visit me as well.
I don’t want to bore you with an account of my entire TNNA experience, so I’ll just say that Jeni’s Ice Cream rocks (if you didn’t already know), and I look forward to visiting again next year. In the meantime, I’m going to be planning for an August book launch, Rhinebeck and Stitches, and working on workshops for the fall and spring. And of course, I’m going to keep working on new projects — both for my own purposes and as commissioned designs.
Without further ado, here’s the one I’ve been keeping under wraps. It got “outed” by a couple of people blogging about it (I have only one link though) so I figured it’s about time I posted it myself. It’s still a ways from completion, but I’m getting faster — the more I do, the more I can do it without looking at the pattern. I’m starting to be able to separate the faces in my head and error-check them without actually looking at the chart.
To all those who say I'm not playing with a full deck ...
The piece is a scarf called “Fifty-Two Pickup”. In fact, there are two Jokers as well, for a total of 54 playing cards, arranged in a 3×18 grid for about a 6.5-foot-long scarf. The idea is that each distinct card is able to be oriented face-up or face-down; in addition the suits can be oriented right-side-up or upside-down. I recommend that the first 9 repeats (sets of 3 cards) be worked with the suits right-side-up, and the last 9 repeats be worked with the suits upside-down, so that a scarf hanging around a person’s neck will show right-side-up suits (pips) on both ends. Because of this, each card is charted 4 times. Since each chart takes half a standard letter-sized page, there are 212 charts for 53 cards (the Joker is used twice), or a total of 106 chart pages. Add to that the instructions and schematics and the pattern currently stands at 114 pages.
You decide randomly where each card will go, and whether it landed face-up or face-down. There are rigorous ways to do this with dice, but I find the best and quickest way is to actually play 52-pickup — throw a deck of cards in the air and arrange the resulting mess in a grid. A friend’s mathematician father tells me that the chance of any two arrangements being the same is 4.15851e+87 to 1. Therefore, if “thrown” and not followed from my schematic, each scarf done from this pattern will, pending the development of the infinite improbability drive, be completely unique.
A few details: The scarf is done in Regia sock yarn at 7-8 sts/in on US3 needles. I don’t know how many balls of yarn yet, but considering I’m starting repeat 4 and the 3 balls I’m using now are maybe half done — so I’m guessing a total of 3 balls of each color or 9 total. Each card has a single suit “pip” in the middle because I don’t have the resolution to design entire cards and still make this a pattern that someone else might like to knit (i.e. more people are likely to knit a pattern that’s 7-8 sts/in than 12sts/in). Again, I don’t have the resolution (or color) to do full face cards, so I took each card’s emblem or weapon (as seen in a standard Bicycle deck) and charted it in the opposite color from the pip. In the photo you can see the Jack of Clubs has a sort of fat spear; the King of Spades has a sword, and the Queen of Diamonds has a flower. I had another font that looks more like the playing card font, but it doesn’t knit up well — the diagonal lines make it harder to read — so I charted 5×7 block font letters/numbers and they work well enough.
Once this sample is done, I’ll do a photo-shoot and the pattern will be released on Ravelry, probably for $12 or $15.
I’ve been a little reclusive since I finished the bulk of my work on the book, but now I have some stuff to share. First of all, I have plane tickets and hotel reservations to go to TNNA this summer in Columbus, Ohio — actually, that’s only 2 weeks from now. I’m getting in under the Cooperative Press umbrella, and primarily will be there to push my upcoming book, which is currently in the layout stage. In all likelihood, I will have the book itself when I attend Rhinebeck and Stitches East this October.
In memory of Victor Vasarely?
But in the meantime, I’m not relaxing — I’ve got several more patterns in the works. The two I have on the needles are scarves in the 7-8 sts/in range, and one is pictured here. It’s called “Parallax”, which is a catchy name, if scientifically inaccurate. I’m knitting it in Kauni Effektgarn. I actually have almost double this amount done — it’s a shockingly easy pattern, and I can get quite a lot done in short order.
The other scarf I have on the needles I’m going to keep under wraps (except to those who see me working on it locally) until I have more of it done. It’s a sort of magnum opus — I’ve written the pattern, and it’s 114 pages long. Now I just have to knit it. It’s going relatively quickly despite its complexity, and I hope to have a majority done before the shows in October. Because each row is different, it keeps my interest well; and because there is an element of randomness there is an infinitesimal chance that any two — even made by different people — will ever be the same. I am of course making my exact configuration available in the pattern for those who’d rather just do it exactly as I did. I’d like to find out what the exact statistical likelihood is, so if you’re a statistician, please get in touch :>
When these patterns are made available, I think they’ll be digital only.
Anyway, if you’re going to TNNA, look for the guy with the knitted tie on!
Well, my friend Guido has proved again that he’s a bad influence on me, but I know he has my best interests at heart. First he makes me ditch my antiblog and start an actual blog, now he’s gone and forced me to join Facebook. I’ll be posting updates up there as well as here.
Also, I have another Intro to Double-Knitting (Level 1) workshop running at Mind’s Eye Yarns this spring, on May 7th. Sign up if you want to learn double-knitting and live in the Cambridge area! I’m going to try to set up some other workshops but I’ve been either ridiculously busy or sick all this winter, so it may well be too late. We’ll see.
Oh, and thanks to everyone that came out to see me at the Red Line Yarn Crawl — it was lots of fun.
More experiments with community-building in the Boston knitting world and beyond! Last weekend, the Common Cod Fiber Guild hosted the second annual FiberCamp Boston, which we held at MIT in some unused classrooms. It was a little crazy — nobody told us that there were going to be high-schoolers running all over the halls — but we managed to pull off a great event anyway. I ran the registration booth, which was enhanced this year by the fact that we actually had an internet connection, and I still had the opportunity to run one workshop and take a couple of others.
My workshop was meant to be more of a hands-on affair, using the document camera I usually bring when I’m going to present to a large group, but due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to use this machine and was stranded in front of 30-some expectant knitters with nothing but a giant bag of double-knitted samples. So I did a glorified trunk show — showed off the progress of my work in double-knitting techniques, then did Q&A for a little while before showing the very basics of double-knitting — my cast-on, and the general technique of double-knitting. Little did I know that Sara Streeter was filming with the intent to publish … or I would have practiced my spiel, and paid more attention to how many “ums” and “ahs” I interspersed with my talk. Nevertheless, I think it came out OK.
Aside from that, I took half of a photography workshop, then raced off to learn how to knit and purl backwards — not as hard as it sounds — and now I need to figure out how to do that in double-knitting. Then I need to make a double-knit entrelac pattern! I got to hang out with a bunch of awesome people, and I got to show my Whorl’d Tree bag to Kathy Elkins of Webs, who provided the yarn for it.
Next stop: Mind’s Eye Yarns for the Red Line Yarn Crawl on March 26th, where I’ll be at 2pm until they get tired of me. I’ll probably hit Windsor Button beforehand, just because I don’t think I’ll have time to visit Dorchester.
Hey, just a quick update! I’ve been out of touch while I’ve been in the home stretch on the book. My deadline was a few days ago — but it was also Amanda’s birthday, and my publisher is a little behind on her previous project, and graciously gave me a little extra time. I’ll have the manuscript in her hands this weekend. Then the fun begins!
Also, Lela Nargi is publishing a book which mentions my work! I did an email interview with her some months ago, and sent some photos. I hope everything comes out well! It’s both humbling and inspiring to be mentioned alongside all these other great and groundbreaking knitters.
Go check out Astounding Knits at Lela Nargi’s website now, and put it on your list of books to pre-order (along with mine!) when it’s available.
Next weekend (March 12th and 13th) I will be at FiberCamp Boston, teaching basic double-knitting and two circular needle techniques. Last year’s event was great fun and I hope for an even better turnout this year. Come learn, teach or just hang out with other fiber enthusiasts — registration is still up!
On March 26th, I will be making an appearance at Mind’s Eye Yarns in Cambridge for the Red Line Yarn Crawl. I’ll be showing off my new creations, talking up my book, selling a few patterns and taking names for contact when “Extreme Double Knitting” is available for pre-order. Also, Amanda will be there doing knitter-centric chair massages and hand massages!
This is the first photo of the final piece in my upcoming book. It’s a seamless, four-color self-lining double-knit shoulder bag. The strap is adjustable — one long and one very short strap with a buckle — and there is a fold-over flap that buttons down. I call it Whorl’d Tree. I see the pattern as a sort of stylized view of a forest from inside — the brown of the roots, the green of the canopy, and the water flowing in between to feed it all. Of course, it’s my hope that other folks try other color combinations — I’m sure it’d be very striking in flame colors and black too. The fabric is ridiculously sturdy, verging on inflexible, which is good for a bag — I can put a #2 knitting needle in this one without worrying it’ll poke through. The pattern is only on the outside — the inside is all white, with blue edging, and a completely serendipitous side-effect of the pattern: there is a relief pattern of the whorls on the inside. If my tension was a little better, I probably wouldn’t have those, but honestly I like them, and so have other people who’ve seen it in person. I have many model shots of it as well but will be saving those for the book. The cast-on is at the bottom of the piece (sorry for the bad/blurry photo) and uses a 2-needle double-knit cast-on I designed as well as a very strange needle configuration — 2 circulars and 3 DPNs are necessary to make this work properly, at least until you’re about 1/3 of the way up the bag.
The piece is done in Valley Yarns Northampton — but could just as easily be done in Cascade 220. Because of the self-lining, it takes 3-4 times as much white as any of the other colors.
Despite my ambivalence toward children, I thought these things up long ago. The only issue has been the construction. I am big on seamless designs, or at least designs that only require the picking up of stitches. Sewing together is great for afghans, but I feel it shouldn’t be relied upon for smaller items, except perhaps some knitted toys. Baby booties are just glorified socks, so I quickly departed from the modular designs I was planning on using and researched other baby booties, sock construction, and sizing. I knit quite a few baby booties — but only one of each, so as not to be in any way useful for a real baby — while trying to understand sizing and the merits of various types of construction. The problem was that most booties are either actually sock patterns, so they fold flat in a vertical orientation, or they focus on the body of the boot, making the sole an afterthought. For these, I really wanted to make the sole the focal point, for obvious reasons.
These are the first in what I believe will be a series of works which will use a combination of doubled-yarn work and double-knitting. I determined that one can use the stitches I call “2k2” and “2p2” as shaping elements in the double-knit box posted earlier, but one can also use them more thoroughly as body stitches, in this case, garter stitch. At any point in the work I can separate the two ends and use them to make double-knitting, which is only a little off the gauge of the garter stitch, easily blocked into uniformity. In the case of these booties, blocking isn’t necessary since it’s best to have the sole be just a little smaller than the top of the bootie anyway.
Well, not really, but since appearing atop my article in Twist Collective, this hat has been the most-requested unpublished pattern. I was never really happy with the original pattern — the closure I used made it kind of pointy and I didn’t want to publish it that way. On top of that, the chart I based it on was lifted directly from Jessica Tromp’s amazing website. In light of that, I wasn’t at liberty to publish it anyway. I made some efforts to do my own chart that looked similar, but never came out with anything quite as elegant as Jessica’s. So, at Cat Bordhi’s recommendation, I emailed Jessica and to my surprise she was very happy to let me publish the pattern! Of course she’ll get credit for the original chart. So that left me with the responsibility to do better with the crown of the hat. Some fiddling around with decreases later, I had a few revisions of the chart and settled on this one, in which the decreases actually seem like they’re part of the design, and don’t interrupt the chart at all. I love this hat now — it’s one of my favorites. The other neat thing about it is that I knit it in the space of a week — the fastest hat I’ve ever done, and I could have done it even quicker if I decided I didn’t need the fold-up brim.
I gave the hat a new name (not that it had a name before), calling it “Struktur”. The German meaning of this word is particularly apt for any knitting project, but for one that looks like it’s made from skeletal building blocks assembled by M.C. Escher, it was perfect.
You can see more views of this hat here, here, here, here, and here. For those who are interested in the pattern, I am planning to wait until the book is published but it is possible I may release this pattern ahead of the book if demand is high enough.
