In the design
While I wait for my CotLin order to arrive in the mail, I am trying my hand at designing a pattern. OK, so I didn't create the Reds' wishbone C, but translating it into knits and purls qualifies, doesn't it?I thought this might look good on a dishcloth, and I know a few people who might be appreciative of one, including yours truly. How do I write a pattern, though?
First I printed off some graph paper I found online and a large image of the logo. Then I put the graph paper over the logo and tried to put a circle where the C is. (I incorrectly assumed that a circle in patterns symbolizes purls. Although it is wrong at this stage, I'll fix it when I get something to my satisfaction.) I did far from perfect work on the initial one seen above, but I figured it gave me a good starting point.
The bottom half of the C looked better than the top, so I counted stitches and tried flipping the numbers for the upper half on a second sketch. Something doesn't look quite right, but we'll see what happens with a third drawing.
I know the approximate number of stitches for dishcloths, meaning I'm not worried about designing with a stitch count that will be closer to a beach towel than a dishrag. I assume that borrowing the trick I learned about working with two colors on the ballband dishcloth will also apply here. I know I don't want to utilize any slipped stitches, so I have that potential mishap covered.
The main thing I'm unsure of is if switching colors in the middle of rows presents unanticipated problems. (I'll be knitting a white wishbone C onto a red background.) I'm in uncharted territory, so if you foresee some colossal mistake ahead of me, please let me know.
Also, I welcome any designing suggestions, hints, warnings, etc. I'm making this up as I go along--literally--and appreciate your advice.
posted by the secret knitter @ 9:47 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Now I'm no expert, because I've never done either of the things I'm about to recommend. But if you want to do big blocks of color, you need to use an intarsia technique or a mosaic knitting technique. Intarsia is described in STITCH N' BITCH and there are lots of intarsia patterns in there, so it's one place to look for a beginner's primer. Mosaic knitting is a technique wher you knit each row twice, once with the main color and once with the contrasting color (slipping all the stitches that need to be done with the other color). If you google it, you'll find some tutorials I'm sure.
Intarsia is probably the natural choice for something like this, but of course it depends on how comfortable you feel with the technique once you've reviewed it.
Hey, you're getting there! Next order of business is a script letter "I" for me, OK? ;-)
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