knitting

More hexagon mesh explorations

| Naomi Parkhurst

One of my very favorite things about the online knitting community is the way that one person will write about a technique or an idea, and that will inspire someone else to try a variation, and so on.

This back-and-forth brainstorming has been happening lately with hex mesh, bunny ears decreases, and combinations thereof.

Sequence of events: several years ago, I unvented the bunny ears decrease and figured I couldn’t have been the first to come up with it. Indeed, that was the case. Details in this post. Later, Denise Plourde came up with a way to not use (k1,p1) to work a double yo, instead using a (p1, yo, p1) and a bunny ears decrease and posted about it on Ravelry and on Stitch Maps. I’ve been playing with that for the last couple of weeks – last week I posted a hexagonal mesh based on a six row repeat using that technique. And then StitcherUniverse posted on my Ravelry group that he had come up with a way to use a variant of bunny ears to make that a four row repeat.

I had to try it out, plus I wanted to see what would happen with another hex mesh from this post.

Follow link to see results

Light: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

Light: a free lace knitting stitch pattern, by Naomi Parkhurst
| Naomi Parkhurst

The word I drew from my word hoard for this stitch pattern is Light, suggested by Nim on Patreon. It’s winter in my hemisphere, so more light is welcome. Light is something that happens in summer, so it applies to the southern hemisphere in a different way entirely.

I like the way that the bottom version of this design looks like rays of light radiating outward, and that the upper part looks like candle flames.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make two of these into knitting stitches each month: the first is drawn from the collection of new words; the second 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

Étude no 24: Bunny Ears Honeycomb

| Naomi Parkhurst

After last week’s post, I couldn’t resist trying out the kyok/bunny ears method for dealing with a double yarn over in an established stitch pattern. I was considering how the double YO, followed by pyop, followed by by bunny ears makes a three row sequence, and that reminded me of German Honeycomb (see my hexagonal mesh post). So here is a variation on German Honeycomb.

Periodically I like to play with techniques in swatches to see what I can do with them. When I write about this, I call the posts my études, because they’re somewhat like the exercises musicians do for practicing.

Follow this link for a chart and instructions

Promise: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

The first word for this month is Promise, suggested by Catnach on Patreon. For some reason, finding the right layout for this word took a lot more work than usual, but in the end, I’m pleased.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make two of these into knitting stitches each month: the first is drawn from the collection of new words; the second is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose this, 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 charts are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Follow this link for charts and written instructions

Doodle lace: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

Over the last while, I’ve been turning a doodled colorwork pattern into several knitting stitch patterns so you can see how I turn my code grids into knitting in various ways. Here is my original post.

For this version, I substituted yarnovers for the original black squares, and then made quite a few alterations in both the layout and the chart. Lace often has its own considerations, you see.

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Dog: a free needlework chart for any craft

| Naomi Parkhurst

The random number generator picked Dog for my second encoded word post of this month, suggested by Caitlin, 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 an image 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.

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Dog: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

The word I drew from my word hoard for this stitch pattern is Dog, suggested by Natasha on Patreon. Dogs are good friends to many people, so I hope that all you dog friends like this stitch pattern as much as I do! There are two slight variations of this stitch pattern.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make two of these into knitting stitches each month: the first is drawn from the collection of new words; the second 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 this link for charts and written instructions

Doodle worked as a knit/purl pattern

Doodle, the knit/purl version
| Naomi Parkhurst

A while back, I doodled up a chart. (It’s not secret code.) I’m gradually working through making it into various kinds of knitting. Here it is as a knit/purl pattern. I don’t know if it’s something to do with the stitch pattern, the yarn, or my gauge, but the pattern in my swatch is really only visible with bright light coming from an angle. I suspect it’s mostly the yarn; my next knit/purl pattern will be done with thicker yarn.

Nonetheless, I’m happy with the result.

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