If you've been reading this blog at all, you will know that I have recently been having a lot of fun designing my own knitting patterns and selling them through Ravelry.com As much as I enjoy it when a pattern catches on (and better still sells), I really enjoy the creative process so it doesn't bother me too much when a pattern doesn't get a lot of attention.
I like to learn new things and I like to share my knowledge so if I manage to do either of these things, I feel pretty awesome. With this in mind, I try to do both when I design a new pattern. My favourite techniques combine simplicity with dramatic results. Although it's nice to occasionally knit a project because it challenges us, I feel like most knitters have limited time and resources. I think a lot of techniques seem intimidating especially to beginners. So I really love it when I can make a fantastic result accessible to all knitters.
So I was pretty excited when I learned about mosaic knitting, I knew it was something I wanted to master and share. You know those Icelandic sweaters we talked about with the intricate, multi-coloured patterns in the yoke?
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| This is an example of fair isle knitting |
That's not mosaic knitting. That is called fair isle knitting and it requires the knitter to change colours often within a single row of knitting. It requires complex charts of stitches and the ability to read them. It requires time, patience, and manual dexterity. In short, it looks fantastic but it's a bitch to knit.
Mosaic knitting, on the other hand, can be used to achieve similar fantastic results without ever changing colours in a row. It is done by strategically slipping stitches on row, then knitting them in the next row when you have changed colours simply, as God intended, at the beginning of a row. Magic!
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| These are examples of mosaic knitting |
This seemed like a perfect technique for an idea that had been milling around in my head for a while. I envisioned a pure cream background and stripes of a fair isle style pattern done in red, grey, yellow and green. In my head, it seemed reminiscent of a German fairy tale. Hansel and Gretyl maybe. I wanted simple single colour stripes in the top section of the shawl. I wanted a couple of really bold patterned stripes using all the colours at the bottom. And I wanted some kind of border that echoed the colours throughout.
The simple stripes were, well, pretty simple to figure out. I was sooooo proud of myself when I experimented and managed to produce a pretty good looking stripe. Then I was looking on Ravelry and saw someone else's design that seemed to incorporate the exact same pattern that I had laboriously come up with on my own. Apparently, it's a thing. I probably could have found it somewhere online and saved myself a lot of effort. Oh well.
The intricate multi-coloured stripes were from a stitch dictionary I found on YouTube which I modified with a cool spiky eyelet border. It looked suitably Grimm. (Get it)? However, this was the first time I was attempting to fit a fixed pattern stitch into a shape that was increasing every row. It seemed simple enough. I made a spreadsheet. I calculated stitch counts by row. I did a little math. Remember this picture?
And after all that, it still didn't work. A knitting friend suggested that I chart out the pattern first to make it easier. That confused me even more. Remember, math and spatial logic are not my friends. I really struggled with it. Every time I tried to figure it out, things weren't working. I got a lot of suggestions from well meaning people about how to learn what I needed to know. And although, I appreciated their suggestions, I didn't take any of them. I can't help it. It was something that I needed to take apart and build from the ground up for myself. I needed to get inside it and understand how it worked. I needed the struggle.
So I persevered. And I got it wrong some more. And then, finally, I saw where I was going wrong. I adjusted some more and it was like the clouds parted and the angels sang and.....well, anyway, it worked. Seriously though, there is no better feeling than the moment you figure out something that has been kicking your ass for days.
Was it smooth sailing from there? I wish I could say yes, but....No. It still took a few more days of knitting, adjusting, and calculating to get it just right. To make it look like I wanted it to. To make it super clear and easy to follow for the people who, hopefully, invest their money and faith in my pattern. Because the whole point is to do the hard part so that other people can follow my instructions and have simple, instantaneous success. But I had learned something from the first mistake. And the second. And so on. But the solutions were coming faster with each problem I solved and it was getting easier to spot the errors and correct them.
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| http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/trail-of-crumbs |
Until it was done, The sample is knit. The photos are taken. It had a name: Trail of Crumbs. And the whole thing is available online for your knitting pleasure. And whether it is popular or not, I take a lot of satisfaction from the fact that I forced myself to step out of my comfort zone and attempt a more challenging design. That I stuck with it when it got hard. And that I got through to the other side with considerably more knowledge than when I went in. After all, there's more than one way to define success.
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| http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/trail-of-crumbs |
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