secret code

Help: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

This is a continuation of my Help post from before, this time with a lace stitch based on the word help. If you like it and use it, please consider donating money to a group working to assist after natural disasters. As I discussed in my previous post, local donations are usually best, but if you don't have much time, I think it's hard to go wrong with Doctors without Borders.

I'm not familiar with the right groups for the flooding in South Asia or Africa, or the earthquake in Mexico. This is all highly discouraging, but remember to look for the helpers!

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Dragons: a free chart for any craft that uses them

| Naomi Parkhurst

The word of the month is Dragons, suggested by Nyriis and Asimina on Patreon.

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 chart, but I just want to give a sense of it. This month’s is fake cross stitch because I think the floats would be too long if this were worked as stranded knitting.

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Dragons: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

This month, the random number generator chose dragons, suggested by Nyriis and Asimina on Patreon. I like the result! From one angle, the sections with more stockinette look kind of like dragon heads, though I didn’t plan for it. From another, the sections full of yarnovers remind me of plant cells under a microscope.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. A random number generator helps me choose the word of the month, 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.

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Help Texas flood victims

Help: a free chart for any craft that uses them
| Naomi Parkhurst

The colorwork chart I’ve included in this post is based on the word help, using my encoding methods. Whether or not you plan to use it, please consider donating money to organizations helping with disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey.

There’s a lot of organizations that need help. Here are the principles I like to use for natural disasters and some suggestions for organizations:

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Phoenix: a needlework chart for any craft

| Naomi Parkhurst

The word of the month is Phoenix, suggested by Sara on Patreon.

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 chart, but I just want to give a sense of it.

Continue reading →

Phoenix: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

| Naomi Parkhurst

This month, the random number generator chose phoenix, suggested by Sara on Patreon.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. A random number generator helps me choose the word of the month, 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.
Continue reading →

Sunshine: needlework charts for any craft

Sunshine: a free needlework chart for any craft.
| Naomi Parkhurst

The word of the month is Sunshine, suggested by Natasha on Patreon.

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 chart, but I just want to give a sense of it.

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Sun, Shine, and Sunshine: free lace knitting stitch patterns

Sunshine: a free lace knitting stitch pattern
| Naomi Parkhurst

This month, the random number generator chose sunshine, suggested by Natasha. I spontaneously decided to work up the component parts of this compound word, and encoded sun and shine separately. When they are stacked on top of each other, they spell sunshine. This is not something I’ll do every time someone suggests a compound word.It’s a very similar principle to my idea for making coordinating stitch patterns by taking an excerpt of rows of a bigger stitch pattern.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. A random number generator helps me choose the word of the month, 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.

Continue reading →