KnittingFool

Hi, I bought a hand knitted scarf in New Zealand at a Saturday Market and it had a very unusal stitch. I ask the lady what it was and she said it was knit the purls and purl the knits…well that’s a seed stitch (didn’t know that at the time), so I thought simple enough…brought it home and it’s not that stitch. I have taken this scarf to all of the yarn stores in my city, one of which is a master knitter and we can’t figure this out. It has ribbing on one side but the other side is totally different. It kinda looks like a Brioche stitch where you knit in the row below, but then it doesn’t come out ribbed on the other side. I am really stumped on this one. If you have a way I can email you pictures of the scarf and the stitches, I would love to do that and would appreciate any help I can find!!

Oh I just realized I can post pictures on here I think…when I get home today I will try that….

Thanks so much,  Alaskakatz

My daughter took a picture of the box where I toss the stitch patterns swatches after I put the pictures up on the web site.  She has been playing in them and trying to figure out which one would look best in a dog sweater. 

This evening I added a new menu item that allows you to sort the stitch patterns in the stitch catalog by the number of stitches in a pattern repeat.  I’m not sure how useful this will be to the average knitter. 

I use this view of the stitch patterns when I am selecting patterns to work into swatches for the illustrations on the web site.  I usually work three different patterns in sequence on one swatch.  When I select the patterns to work in the swatch, it is just naturally easier if they all have the same number of stitches in a pattern repeat.  I work three patterns consecutively because (1) it reduces the overhead spent on casting on and casting off and (2) three patterns is about what I can expect to get done in a evening. 

Another limiting factor in selecting the number of patterns to work on a single swatch is the limits of my scanner bed.  Rarely can I fit more than three patterns on the scanner at one time.  And the scanner is my cheap, easy way of taking a picture of the swatch.  I pin the swatch with dissecting pins on a piece of felt (supported by a block of styrofoam).  A few moments on the scanner, a few moments in Photoshop to trim the edges of the image to the desired size, upload the file via FTP and another stitch pattern (or perhaps 2 or 3) have been illustrated on the web site.

I also take into account the category of stitches that I select to work in a swatch.  I have found, for instance, that lace patterns do not work up well in the same swatch with twist stitch patterns.  One category has a tendency to spread and another has a tendency to draw in.  It is better if the patterns in the swatch all ‘behave’ the same. 

A question came up about how fast someone can hand knit.  I found documentation that the record is 255 stitches per 3 minutes.

The doily patterns on the Knittingfool site are an attempt to capture knitted lace doily patterns in a data base form.  The diagrams of the doily patterns are generated demand from instructions in my database.  I have tried to present the patterns both as diagrams and in a more traditional written instruction.