designing

Linkety-link, part 8

| Naomi Parkhurst

This week’s regularly scheduled post isn’t going to happen (due to a confluence of personal events), so it’s a good thing I have a bunch of links saved up!

Multicraftual:

Knitting:

Crochet:

Until next week!

Pinion hat pattern, reintroduced!

| Naomi Parkhurst

I’ve just posted an edited version of another pattern on Ravelry, the Pinion tam:

Pinion Tam blocked on a plate

The text is much the same. I’m in the process of reformatting all my patterns to be consistent with each other. In the case of Pinion, I’ve also updated the chart from the old Excel chart to a professionally-done chart using StitchMastery.

This lacy tam is worked from the center outwards. The design spirals outward and flows into a ribbed brim. It looks more complicated than it is–if you know how to knit in the round, purl, knit two together, knit three together,  make a yarn over, and bind off, you can make this hat.

Both charts and written out instructions (in abbreviations) are provided, along with suggestions for modifying the brim size to fit.

Other materials required include a darning needle for working in ends, about a yard of smooth, thin yarn for making a lifeline, and a plate for blocking (about 10 inches or 25cm in diameter).

You shouldn’t need a Ravelry account to buy now. More information is available on the pattern’s page on Ravelry.

Thank you!

neighborhood in late afternoon

| Naomi Parkhurst

Color exercise number two: a photo from my neighborhood, in the late afternoon:

P1066491

First, I opened the photo in GraphicConverter. This time I pixellated the picture and used the eyedropper to pick out some representative colors.

P1066491

swatches

This time, I thought I’d have some fun with a grid designed for helping chart warp-faced weaving (by Laverne Waddington).

I didn’t use all the colors from the square above, but I had fun with it:

oval-chart-gc

I like that! And interestingly, I think I got the proportions to match the photo pretty well, though I wasn’t trying for it.

Just for an arbitrary difference in choices, I went back to Photocopa, with this result:

photocopa - across street

I picked out a color combination I wouldn’t expect myself to pick out (because I’m not much for yellow or chartreuse):

photocopa across street 1

And played with the oval grid again:

oval-chart-pc1

I surprised myself by liking it, though it’s paler than I would ordinarily prefer.

I also picked out a more stereotypical palette from the Photocopa color choices:

photocopa across street 2

and then did a design using both it and the less stereotypical colors:

oval-chart-pc2

It works well enough, though I’m not thrilled by it. I think I could come up with better combinations and proportions, but I’d run out of time for this particular exercise (not that I’m setting a limit; I just have other things I need to do too.)

Next time I’m going to pick a photo with almost no colors that are in my standard choices.

Constructive criticism welcome!

Playing around with colors

| Naomi Parkhurst

I’ve been wanting to play some with color schemes for a while now, as well as stretching the colors I work with. Some conversations on Ravelry as well as some books I’ve read cemented that desire. I particularly haven’t cared for yellow or orange in the past and still don’t care for pink. I prefer muted colors to bright ones. I’m not necessarily going to step outside those preferences much, but I am going to try to push the boundaries a bit.

I want to avoid feeling pressured to produce finished objects, so I’ve decided that for the moment I’m just going to produce color schemes. If I happen to actually go on to weave or knit or spin something specific based on the results, fine. If I don’t, that’s fine too.

I’ve been taking more photos lately; I’ll probably mostly work with those. Today’s exercise is based on a photo I took purely for the colors. I’ve been eyeing these blackberry leaves for a while now. (That is, I don’t care for the photo as a photo.)

P1016463

First, I opened the photo in one of my photo editors (in this case, GraphicConverter), zoomed in the photo so I could see pixels, and used the eyedropper to pick out some representative colors – if I included the pylon in the upper right corner, I had a whole rainbow to choose from!

little blobs of color from all over the rainbow, but muted

I decided to leave the pylon out of things, but to include the cattail beige from the upper left as the background. I made stripes in three different color groupings:

stripes, but no yellow

Since yellow can brighten an object, I decided to try to add a bit:

stripes yellow 1

That seemed like a little too much (I’m trying to think about rough proportions from the original images, among other things), so I cut back on the yellow a bit:

stripes yellow 2

That seems good!

There’s also a color palette tool I found online a while back, called Photocopa. It pulls out a selection of colors from a photo and also creates several palettes, not necessarily using the basic selection. These are the ones it pulled out from the blackberries photo:

color swatches selected by the Photocopa online application

I picked out these five colors:

PHOTOCOPA blackberries-1

and then played some with proportions:

PHOTOCOPA blackberries 2

All in all, I’m pleased with what I did, and I think I would feel happy to work with the final results of both processes. I worked in some yellow and orange, and once a bit of pink. Constructive criticism welcome!

A bit of my design thought process.

| Naomi Parkhurst

 

  1. I’m knitting one thing at the moment, but I’m considering how to make a variant that will combine knitting and crochet. Here’s some of how my thinking has been going (while I’m knitting, mind).
  2. Okay, so this part is garter stitch and that part is stockinette. I think the garter would look nice replaced by crochet.
  3. But crochet tends to be thicker than knitting, so would the two parts sit side by side nicely?
  4. Garter stitch is thicker than stockinette; is crochet thicker than garter stitch? In other words, would #2 matter?
  5. But this yarn is worsted weight and I generally don’t personally care for crochet done in worsted weight. (Note: this is a matter of personal taste, I know. My design process, not suitable for everyone’s consumption. 😉
  6. Contrast colors in different weight yarn? (A thought set aside for later contemplation).
  7. This yarn has four plies, could I unply some of it and turn it into twice as much two ply yarn?
  8. Too much work. Not enough time. This is a giftmas present as well as a design sample. (This thought also set aside for later contemplation, along with a million and a half other such thoughts left over from other projects.)
  9. Hey, wait, rather than split a thick yarn, how about using a thin yarn for the crochet and doubling it for the knitting?
  10. When doubled, isn’t fingering weight yarn doubled about the same as worsted weight?
  11. If in doubt, swatch!

I have rummaged in my stash and have found some fingering weight yarn. Tonight, I swatch!

in the works

| Naomi Parkhurst

I’m working on another Occupy hat. Since I’m using the same yarn and am not good at repetition, I’m hiding the decreases on the wrong side (by doing k2tog instead of p2tog and leaving out the slipped stitches).

I’m also working out the pagination for the charts for my Secret Code of the Librarians shawl and am resisting startitis.

What are you up to today?

Simple secret code rib knitting

| Naomi Parkhurst

Table of Contents: Embedding Meaning in Your Knitting | Converting Words to Numbers | Making a grid | Asymmetry or Symmetry? | Converting grids into stitch patterns | Lace | Cables | Other Encodings | Summary of My Method | Addendum: Ribbing | Further Resources

Another variant of secret code knitting I recently thought of involves making the ribbing at the edge of something different heights based on what letters you want to use.

In this case, the simplest encoding is to figure out the number for each letter (A=1 through Z=26); alternately, you can write the letters of the alphabet up the side of a chart and work out the height that way.

Here I’ve egotistically used my name and charted it out the way I’d want to see it on a piece of knitting, from left to right.

Naomi Parkhurst:

chart showing height of each letter

N is 14, A is 1, O is 15,  M is 13, I is 9, P is 16, A is 1, R is 18, K is 11, H is 8, U is 21, R is 18, S is 19, T is 20.

So each letter gets a knit rib, with a plain purl rib in between, and otherwise the pattern shows best with the background in reverse stockinette (purl bumps facing outward), you could of course have the letter ribs in purl with a regular stockinette background, but it’s less striking in appearance.

The ribbing I’ve made from this so far was worked in the round, and so I made it inside out – this required flipping the chart from left to right so that the letters would show correctly.

What’s in the works

| Naomi Parkhurst

I am theoretically rewriting my free pirate baby boot pattern.

I am also theoretically deep in the throes of designing and knitting a shawl. That’s going pretty well, but it’s being more finicky than I expected. I got about a quarter of the way, then frogged the whole thing. Then I charted a lot, and did some samples, and then started again with lots of life lines. Thank goodness for that, because I got more than halfway and had to frog another large chunk of it. Not only that, but I dropped down some stitches from there and worked them back up again (but at least I didn’t have to frog another eight rows). I’m making good progress on it, but I’m feeling a little beaten up by the whole thing. I’m charting and taking notes as I go, which is a good thing. I can tell I would never remember what I did otherwise.

I am also spinning for the FOAYSAKALFL (Friends of Abby’s Yarns* Spin and Knit Along for Lace). The idea is to spin a bunch of yarn for knitting something lacey, all to be finished by the end of 2010. I haven’t even finished spinning the yarn for the FOAYSAKALFL, but planning the design started to consume my brain today. I’ve even been sampling the stitch patterns for that and seeing if I can make them flow well. So far so good, and I’ve even been improvising some stitch patterns, which pleases me.

I like using stitch dictionaries, but there are some gaps in what I need for this pattern. Not going into great detail, but I need five different stitch patterns with a particular overall character, and with five different repeat numbers. I found one that was exactly what I needed, two more that just needed slight modifications, and have worked out the fourth. This gives me confidence that I can come up with the fifth on my own. This is all very satisfying.

And then, of course, there’s all my other works in progress. I periodically need to sit down and unravel the things that just aren’t going anywhere, so as to clear out the backlog and free my brain a bit. I have a suspicion that the time is nigh. (Interesting that this seems to happen in the spring or early summer.)

*a Ravelry Group.

Pinion hat pattern!

| Naomi Parkhurst

I’ve just posted a new pattern on Ravelry, the Pinion tam:

Pinion Tam blocked on a plate

I will donate all proceeds for Haiti Relief (after PayPal fees are deducted) from sales of this pattern through the last day of February. Money will be split evenly between Doctors Without Borders/MSF, Partners in Health, and the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. Thank you very much for your help!

This lacy tam is worked from the center outwards. The design spirals outward and flows into a ribbed brim. It looks more complicated than it is–if you know how to knit in the round, purl, knit two together, knit three together, and make a yarn over, you can make this hat.

Both charts and written out instructions (in abbreviations) are provided, along with suggestions for modifying the brim size to fit.

Other materials required include a darning needle for working in ends, about a yard of smooth, thin yarn for making a lifeline, and a plate for blocking (about 10 inches or 25cm in diameter).

You shouldn’t need a Ravelry account to buy now.

Thank you!