Tag: Knitting – Techniques, Designers, Supplies

Old Vines Scarf: Pattern & Process

Friday was a really big day for me!  I decided to post to Ravelry, and to here, my first “pay for” pattern.  It is the that I wrote about last March.  You can find it on the “Patterns for Sale” page.  Please give some consideration to buying this pattern!

Writing up a pattern takes some time, as does creating the knitting schematic, shooting the pictures, doing a layout, and finally creating the PDF file that goes along with it!  It really is a major process, far more than I anticipated.  And the thing is, the item has to be knitted before you can photograph it.

I used Knit Visualizer for the pattern schematic.  It is a fairly expensive piece of software, but it is really worth the price paid because it is so easy to use.

My camera is a Casio Exilim, and I can get pretty decent pictures with it.  My preferred settings are with all 9 sensors being used, along with soft flash and a +1 light setting.

For the PDF, I begin in MS Publisher, and then create the document using text boxes, clip art, my photos, and Knit Visualizer schematics saved in a PNG format, and then imported to Paint Shop, and saved as a JPEG.  Once I am happy with my Publisher file, I save it, and then, beginning on the first page, I “save as” and create a PNG file.  Finally, I use Acrobat Pro to create the PDF by choosing “create PDF from multiple files.”  My preferred PDF is “highest quality” for better detail.  It works very well.

Photos are really odd creatures.  You think you have a good one, but you don’t.  This is why I love digital pictures and software.  Cutting, editing, whatever – all can be done pretty readily.  Fonts and so on are also important, for headers, subheads, and content.  Everything needs to work well together.  The direction of a model in the layout leads the eye in, or out, of the page.  Busy-ness is distracting.  Too-much-of-the-same, in density and visual rhythm creates a visual yawn.

Anyway, there you go.  Here are some of the more than 40 pictures I took for the photo shoot.  These were some I liked, in addition to the ones you will find in the Old Vines Scarf pattern itself.

Knitting: Posture and Pain

Having had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago was a big relief – major pain gone.  Now, with some time on my hands before the next semester begins, I picked up my knitting needles and long-neglected projects, begun and unbegun.  A couple of days ago I started working on the Trout Season Socks, listening to an audio book, enjoying the peace and quiet.  The next day, my shoulder hurt and ached on the backside, where the clavicle and scapular articulate, just where the surgery was.  Needless to say, I was not happy, and given that, when I returned to physical therapy yesterday, I brought my knitting with me for the therapist and me to discuss.

One look at me when I showed her what I was doing and she said, “Sit up straight, bring your shoulders back, and down.”

I will be the first to admit – I have sloppy posture.  When I buy furniture, I have to be able to sprawl in it, legs over the chair arms, and if the back of a couch touches my knees when I sit in it, it is too shallow for comfort.

Of course, being sloppy is far easier than focusing on changing bad habits.  I looked up shoulder support devices on google – there are a lot out there which will pull your shoulders back for you.  Knitty has an article about posture and knitting, which is quite good.  In a nutshell, keep your arms parallel to you body, shoulder to the elbow, and knit close to your body.  Don’t bend your wrists, as that increases your risk of carpal tunnel problems.  Accidental Yarnover blog has a lot of suggestions, some of which are the classical “keep your feet flat on the floor,” to using shorter knitting needles, and letting the weight of the knitted object rest in your lap.  Rachel Knits blog links to this article, which is quite interesting in and of itself.  Carpal tunnel is also a risk of knitting, and you can read about it on Subversive Knitting.  The New Zealand Railways Magazine in 1931 shows “the correct posture for knitting and darning.”

Obviously. knitting and pain have been around for awhile – and who knows how people who earned their living by knitting fared.

There are a lot of websites which will give hints and ideas about how to improve posture, exercises to strengthen shoulder muscles to help keep them back and down, as well as ergonomic information to prevent carpal tunnel.  I have been given a number of exercises to do, from stretches to isometrics (not up to weights or stretchy bands yet).  If I don’t do them, I can tell.  If I do them, life is far more pleasant. 

Finding the time to do them is imperative, no matter what my schedule.  In other words, they have to be the primary focus of my day, and then the playtime can follow. My biggest resistance to doing them is boredom – and they are Boring with a Capital B! Thank goodness for the iPod and Pandora!

Online Knitting Resources – A Few Thoughts

Online knitting resources have been around for years, but as internet technology and hardware improves, they have become better than ever.

One of the most valuable tools, for me, is the video.  On youtube, there are all sorts of instructional videos.  These really help get points across, and show the viewer something which is really difficult to describe in words, even with sequenced photographs.  Just doing a search for “backward caston” results in numerous hits, and refining it with “knitting” breaks it down even more.  If it hadn’t been for youtube, I’d never have been able to purl using the continental method – the Norwegian Purl video was more than a little bit of a help!

Other favorite sites for patterns include Ravelry, Twist Collective, Knitting Pattern Central, and KnitNet.  On many of these, techniques can be found, groups, local yarn stores.  In some ways, the internet is like an ongoing treasure hunt – click here, click there, and something new and interesting pops up!

Still, despite the potentials found online, there are also limitations, although as time and technology move forward, that will  become less of an issue.  The low-tech book and magazine provide a portability not found online, and yes, you can take them with you!  I personally would rather look at these than spend hours online, sitting in a chair, at a desk, and be indoors.  Much nicer to wander outdoors to peruse.  Color illustrations still catch my eye, the smell of ink and paper, and the beauty of layout, design, type font as well.

And, in this high-tech world, isn’t it interesting that many of us still prefer to knit with fine knitting needles in our hand, rather than at a knitting machine?

Buttoned Cardigan, i

A week or so ago I dug around in my stash and found some “Second Time Around” cotton.  I knew what I wanted to make out of it, but I needed to modify the pattern because my gauge was going to be very different than that of the pattern.  I ended up changing some elements of the Buttoned Cardigan, by Eva Weichmann.

The pattern calls for 6 st/inch. My gauge appears to be about 4.5-5 st/inch.

The simplicity of the pattern is one of its most appealing qualities. Knit in the round – really, back and forth – on a circular needle, from the bottom up, is something I prefer in sweaters, just because I hate sewing.  The sleeves and sweater are connected with minimal sewing – no setting in of a sleeve.

The garter stitch accents, especially placed between stockinette at the edges of the sleeves and at the bottom of the sweater, are really elegant. This creates a slightly more formal quality to the sweater, giving it a more finished appearance than a 2×2 rib. The same for the sleeves. Also, if you look closely at the buttonholes, you will see that the garter stitch surrounds the buttons, but changes to the finished edge of stockinette, which makes for an interesting and attractive buttonhole band.

The yarn I am using is rather “busy” but it shows up the garter stitch very nicely between the stockinette. The photo, unfortunately, doesn’t really do justice to the yarn, but hopefully will give you an idea of what it will look like.

The green buttons bring out the lighter thread running through the yarn, and I think will really add interest to the sweater itself.