Not much progress for this week, but my time has not been my own.

This strip will continue marching on to the right, ending approximately at the green stripe. The horizontal blue stripe shows the approximate length of the graph for the repeat as it appears in my book. More on that below…

First, thank you to those who have left comments or sent notes of support. I know that lots of knitting readers are disappointed that I’ve been stitching lately. The huge drop off in visitors is a clue, but some of that is due to other factors. Ravelry for instance has just about killed all but the most popular independent knitting sites. So it goes.

Back to stitching. I’ve got three comments I’d like to address here. The first one is of interest to knitters. Faithful Reader TexAnne points out that long block unit repeats like the one I’m working now would adapt very nicely for double sided double knit scarves. An excellent observation, thank you! I add that anything worked in strips, like a large lap throw, an edging around a circularly knit skirt hem would also show this pattern (and its kin) quite well. I’ve done double knitting from these before. My oven head hat is knit up from an outtake that didn’t make it into TNCM. You can see the negative/positive effect in the flipped up brim:

The chart for this hat appears in a follow-on post to the hat description. And, although not double sided, my Knot A Hat earwarmer band (which appears to have lost its picture link, although the chart link works) uses another historical knotwork strip for knitting:

Charts for both these repeats can be found by following the links above.

The second comment contains questions from Ellen R. She asks if I’ve ever worked these patterns before, and if they can be done in voided (Assisi) style. Here’s an answer to both:

I did “Think” in 1989 and gave it to my husband to hang in his office. At the time he was working for a company that used the Scots lion as its logo. All of these patterns are in TNCM, and you can see the one I’m working on now across the bottom of the piece. It’s upside down compared to the strip I’m working now, and is worked voided – with the background instead of the foreground stitched. The effect is a bit different. To my eye, it’s more formal done this way. You can also see more of the repeat, although even this strip doesn’t capture one full cycle. I’ve worked quite a few of these many times, although even I haven’t done every pattern in TNCM (darn near close, though).

The last comment comes from Anne in Atenveldt, (an SCA region that includes parts of California and Utah). She’s got a copy of my book and notes that the chart for the current strip shows the two interlaces and the segment between, but is much shorter than the length of the strip I’m working now (or for that matter, what’s in the Think sampler). She wants to know how I do the additional segments.

I attempt to answer. The extra length is a mirror image of the section presented in the book. I work along as shown for the center point interlace and then the area between it and the next interlace as shown. On the far side of the second interlace, enough of the established pattern is shown to keep the stitcher on target, but after that point a bit of mental gymnastics is required. The stitcher has to continue on by inverting the graphed segment, mirror image style until the next mirror reflection point is reached. Again, I do show some of the area on both sides of that second bounce point to assist in navigation (and because in this case the interlaces are eccentric), but space prohibits showing a full cycle of the repeat.

Now this doesn’t present a problem for me, but as you can see, I’ve been flogging myself with this sort of thing for a long time. And it’s no shame to say that doing this in-mind reflection is difficult for you. It’s a matter of wiring, and not everyone can do this with ease, no more than can everyone use a map or read music.

If chart flipping presents problems, I do know of one easy shortcut. Office supply stores still carry transparency sheets for overhead projectors. They’re far less common in these days of Powerpoint and projectors, but many schools still use them so they’re kept in stock. They come in several flavors for various types of photocopier or printer, so be sure you’ve got the right kind for your machine. (Hot process laser printers and photocopiers for example use a melt resistant plastic, and can be fouled by using something not designed for them). Copy your chart onto the transparent sheet. Put it in a page protector sleeve with a piece of plain white paper. Work off it as usual. When time comes to do the flip, turn it over inside the page protector. Instant mirror image. The only caveat is that on pattens with eccentric interlaces as the flip point (like the one I’m working now), you’ll need to finish the interlace as charted before flipping to work the “in-between” portion.

In all, thanks to all who continue to read here. I do hope that my prattling on is useful to someone.

Technorati : counted-thread, embroidery, knitting