How I make pictures of stranded knitting

| Naomi Parkhurst

I’ve been noodling around for years, trying to find a consistent way of producing images that look like stranded knitting that make me happy. I think I’m finally there. I’m going to share an overview of what I do, just because. It’s written for people who already know how to use vector art software (Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or other programs like that). I explain what I do, but not how I do it.

If you’re not comfortable with that kind of software, Chart-Minder.com is a reasonable alternative. I used it for quite a while. It doesn’t quite work out for the effect I have in mind, but if you want to design colorwork, it’s good for that aspect.

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Magician: a needlework chart for any craft

sample of Magician: a needlework chart for any craft, by Naomi Parkhurst (Looks approximately like stranded colorwork in knitting)
| Naomi Parkhurst

The random number generator picked Magician from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Bookwyrm, one of my Patreon supporters.

I usually develop a complicated knitting stitch pattern for each word, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I also try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I just want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

Follow link for charts and more information

Magician: a lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

Happy Solstice! (In this hemisphere, it’s winter; in the southern hemisphere, it’s blazing summer.)

The first word I drew from the words suggested on Patreon this month is Magician, suggested by Bookwyrm, a Patreon supporter.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make three of these into knitting stitches each month: the second and third (posted on the first day of the next month) are drawn from the collection of new words; the first is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose these, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways. Finally, when I make the chart into lace, I turn the marked squares into yarnovers and work out where to place the corresponding decreases. (I usually make lace; occasionally I make cables instead.) I also make a chart for any craft that uses a square grid for designing; this goes in a separate post.

The stitch patterns are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Follow link for charts and instructions

Lace-cable feather chevron: a knitting stitch pattern

Lace-cable feather chevron: a stitch pattern by Naomi Parkhurst (swatch photo)
| Naomi Parkhurst

Sometimes when I design a larger stitch pattern, there’s a part of it that I think would be good as a smaller pattern. I think of these as excerpts or outtakes.

This stitch pattern is an outtake from Join: I took a vertical excerpt from it that struck me as a likely candidate, and then I changed which was row 1 to make it start in the logical spot.

(This excerpt isn’t a coded word anymore.)

Follow link for charts and instructions

Orchid: a needlework chart for any craft

Orchid: a needlework chart for any craft, by Naomi Parkhurst (sample image, drawn as if done as stranded knitting))
| Naomi Parkhurst

The random number generator picked Orchid from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Lara, one of my Patreon supporters.

I usually develop a complicated knitting stitch pattern for each word, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I also try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I just want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

Follow link for charts and more information

Orchid: a lace knitting stitch pattern

Orchid: a lace knitting stitch pattern, by Naomi Parkhurst (photo of sample)
| Naomi Parkhurst

The word I drew from my word hoard for this stitch pattern is Orchid, suggested by Lara, a Patreon supporter.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make three of these into knitting stitches each month: the second and third (posted on the first day of the next month) are drawn from the collection of new words; the first is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose these, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways. Finally, when I make the chart into lace, I turn the marked squares into yarnovers and work out where to place the corresponding decreases. (I usually make lace; occasionally I make cables instead.) I also make a chart for any craft that uses a square grid for designing; this goes in a separate post.

The stitch patterns are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Follow link for charts and instructions

Embers: a mosaic knitting chart

| Naomi Parkhurst

A while back, I encoded the word Embers and made it into a lace stitch pattern. For this week’s post, I reworked a code grid I made while planning that post and turned it into a mosaic knitting stitch pattern. (I used the process described in this post.)

The nice thing about mosaic knitting is that the charts are similar to the final appearance of the knitting, so I’m not going to provide a swatch this time. Mosaic knitting looks difficult, but it’s not as hard as it looks! Basically, knit two-row stripes, and slip stitches from the row below to make the contrasting pattern. If you can knit stripes, you can knit mosaic patterns.

Here’s a detailed blog post I wrote about how it works.

Follow the link for charts

Hiraeth: a needlework chart for any craft

Hiraeth: a needlework chart for any craft, by Naomi Parkhurst (sample image)
| Naomi Parkhurst

The random number generator picked Hiraeth from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Smart Mouth’d, one of my Patreon supporters.

I usually develop a complicated knitting stitch pattern for each word, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I also try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I just want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

Follow link for charts and more information

Pumpkin: a needlework chart for any craft

Pumpkin: a needlework chart for any craft, by Naomi Parkhurst (sample image)
| Naomi Parkhurst

The random number generator picked Pumpkin from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Asimina, one of my Patreon supporters.

I usually develop a complicated knitting stitch pattern for each word, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I also try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I just want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

Follow link for charts and more information