Swatchless

After all of the Hallowe’en fun, did you remember to change your clock?  I certainly enjoyed the extra hour of sleep (who am I kidding…the extra hour of knitting) I had last night.  Yesterday, our family dressed up to give the trick-or-treaters a scare.

the hands and faces glow in the dark

Some children yelled for their parents, others refused to take candy from those bony fingers, and others stood there telling me “I’m not scared”, “You’re not creepy”, “You’re not real”.  They can’t handle the suspense and our silence as we give them candy.  Others were masked and robed and sitting outside completely still, or operating the fog machine and strobe light.

jack-o-lantern

We went trick-or-treating at my grandmother’s house.  She has lost track of how many pumpkins she’s carved in her 94 years.  I brought my recent knitting to show her.  She was excited by some of the things that are on my needles.  She told me that she’s a swatchless knitter also because she has no time to waste anymore.

I have no time to waste either!  I cast on several projects this fall for colleagues and friends who have new babies in the family.  The babies are getting bigger by the day, and I’ve been ignoring the projects, knitting mittens instead.  Here is one project that I finished.  The pattern is Phazelia’s baby socks {Ravelink}.  It’s based on a Turkish sock pattern.  They are a very satisfying knit.  The pattern is easy to follow, and explains well how to construct the sock.  It comes with 3 different stitch pattern options, and a blank grid to design your own.  The sole of the foot can incorporate the baby’s name, or birth year too.  I think that they will make lovely Christmas tree ornaments when the baby outgrows them.

Turkish Baby Socks

And….for all those enjoying the extra hour from the time change, be inspired by these lovely tams (KnitPicks kit), which can have the clock face knit in colourwork numbers, or in cabled roman numerals.  You can even knit your own clock face!  I am not a tam wearer, and I don’t really need a knitted clock face, but I am inspired by the cable roman numerals.  Who knows where I can incorporate that into a project later on.

clock tams

Are you scared of spiders?

are you scared??

These spiders make silk that has been spun and woven into an amazing cloth which is on display at the American Museum of Natural History. My friend sent me this interesting article today.

Hallowe’en is a day where all is not as it seems. The same can be said about projects using the technique of illusion knitting. My first illusion knitting project was the counterpoint scarf {Ravelink} that I knit for my good friend GS, a music major. When viewed from above, it looks like a black and white striped scarf, but when viewed on an angle, the combination of ridges knit and purled into the scarf show a different design. The counterpoint scarf shows a piano keyboard, but you can make any two colour design into an illusion pattern. The scarf was such a big hit, that he commissioned me to knit two more for his friends.

counterpoint scarf

In the spirit of Hallowe’en, I’m going to explain how to make a pumpkin design into an illusion knitting design. All it takes is some graph paper, and coloured pencils, or an excel spreadsheet (for the high-tech knitter).

SPOILER ALERT!!! If you prefer to be mystified by these illusions, do NOT scroll down. Detailed instructions of how to make your own illusions are presented below.

Step 1: Draw your design on the grid.

pumpkin chart

Step 2: Draw your design, but this time stretch it vertically by adding 3 blank rows between each existing row.

stretched pumpkin

Step 3: Move all orange (contrasting colour) squares up two rows.

illusion pumpkin

How to read this pattern: Main colour is yellow, contrasting colour is orange.

The pattern is knit in 2 row chunks of colour. The first row of any colour is always knit. The second row of the colour is knit only when the chart indicates the colour, blank squares in the second row are purled. This makes a coloured ridge to match the pattern on the right side of the work.

The first 10 rows of the pattern chart would be written out as follows

Row 1: MC K

Row 2: MC K (forms a MC ridge on right side of work)

Row 3: CC K

Row 4: CC P5,K7,P5

Row 5: MC K

Row 6: MC K5,P7,K5

Row 7: CC K

Row 8: CC P3,K11,P3

Row 9: MC K

Row 10: MC K3,P11,K3

etc.

Once you understand the technique, you can design illusion knitting for scarves, mittens, socks, and cushion covers. Remember though, the design will be 4 times as long as it appears on your original grid. Be careful though, if knitting in the round, the second row coloured squares will need to be purled to form the ridge needed for the illusion.

Now, go forth and mystify your friends!

Happy Hallowe’en!