knit landscape

Looking Back: Did you see Him there?

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To say that these pictures were made for the exhibit is not fully true: they were made for my heart , and for ‘digesting’ things from deep within.

The ‘Looking Back’ series is going back in time. The first picture is of the bridge at Meher Center, where my current life is.
The second is about the year I spend in Meherabad (India), and is symbolized by the walks I used to do with my friend Nana Kher.
This last one is of my first trip to Meherabad, which was very intense. I used to imagine Meher Baba standing there under the tree. I did not want to add His image, so just ‘sprinkled’ some gold shiny yarn on the ground instead. It’s by the gate on the right side.

 

If you’ve been to all these places:
1. Looking back at the bridge, from the steps to the Guest House (Myrtle Beach, sc).
2. The round-about opposite the Dhuni, meherabad, India.
3. Looking back toward the pilgrim center, on the way to the Samadhi, before crossing the road (Meherabad, India).

How to knit pictures, again…

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Here is again about how to knit pictures: without fear and with much fun!

Attitudes: 

1. Use common sense as oppose to relying on instructions along. Sometimes looking at your knitting makes it easier to figure out what to do.

2. Adopt attitude of ‘no biggy’.

3. Instead of thinking you made a horrid mistake, call it a new design element. See – didn’t it get pretty immediately?

I just go on knitting.

Technically: all I do is knit and purl. Adding/ending/carrying yarn is done by weaving-in the extra yarn (or yarn tail) as I knit along.

Adding a new yarn: knot it to the old yarn, or weave it in 7-9 sts before you need it (so it is ready and secure in place).

switching yarns: stick the needle into your next st, hold the new yarn ready to use. Now place the old yarn in between the needles and the new yarn, so that when you knit, the new yarn will ‘hug’ the old yarn in place (‘sandwich’ it). Inserting the needle first into the next st will save you from a lot of trouble.

Weaving-in the other yarn: same as switching yarns. Stick the needle into the next st and place the unused yarn in between the needles and the working yarn. Note: I alternate between moving the yarn upward (right photo) and down (left photo) but that’s not a must.

Just think of hugging. Make sure the unused yarn/tail is being hugged-in by the working yarn. That’s it.

Shadow of a leaf

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I’ve been playing for a while with a design for a knit Baby blanket, to go with our second Elfy book. The first one, The Mushroom under the Elf, has a game blanket as a part of the book and it’s also the back cover. For the second book I was thinking of something like a friendship pattern, which in the story is made out of oak leaf/leaves. But when I did the previous blanket, with the 2+2 pattern (see previous post, and free pattern), it surprised me by somehow having the right feeling of falling leaves and woods. That led to this blanket.

The knitting itself is very simple and knits fast. There is no carrying of yarns etc. but I added some rvrs.st. for the leaf’s veins. The photos do not give the richness and subtleties of this fabric.

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Pink Lily Shawl

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Water Lilies are very big with me. I have so many photos of them just waiting to be knit. This is an experiment in making a simple lily – only 2 colors, and at the same time experimenting with shawl shapes (looking for a shape I really like, that permits picture knitting on it).

Knitted sideways in st.st with small short rows at the bottom hem, and one big short row section across the whole thing in the back (as an upside down V. Starting with very short rows, inc. all the way to the top then dec back again.)

How to knit a picture

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Even now, after almost 20 years of knitting pictures ( /tapestry / wall hanging ), it’s still scary.

I run around telling myself: I don’t know how to do it! I don’t know how I did it before! I’m a terrible knitter! and so on.

So, here is my real ‘how to knit pictures’:

1. BE BRAVE! tell yourself you can do it, and  just start!

No matter the gauge, the yarn & color matching. Instead of wasting time in mastering all that and trying to get it perfect – just start knitting. Believe me – it is faster this way.

2. Mid way: even if the knitting looks like  – – – – ,  and not at all like what  it suppose to look, even  if the images are totally unclear, and even if you have a hole in the middle:

GO ON KNITTING!

You can always fix things later. A big part of knitting pictures is to have faith. If it looks terrible when its done – start again using all the knowledge you gained by LETTING YOURSELF FINISH the first picture. Again – it is faster this way.

3. ALMOST THE END, and you still want to undo because it looks bad and totally un-beautiful and so on – resist unraveling temptation (it comes from the devil whispering in your ear), and finish.

Once done – do all the corrections needed.

Often, the simple act of stretching while framing the picture, will put everything into place.

GOOD LUCK

🙂

p.s. yes – technicality, being a good knitter etc. does not really matters. What matters is having the passion in your heart.

Mixed sts / Couples knitting

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This is a new / continued theme I’m still exploring: I see the knitting as a double knit fabric but sometime do double strand garter st or st.st.

If you want to try it yourself:

a double knit unit = 1 knit facing st + 1 purl facing st.

Change a unit like that to 1 double strand st or 2 st.sts (k on one side p on the next).

There is a lot that comes with it and I’m still learning (it’s fascinating), and I hope to write more about it. For now here are some photos:

Above is one of my current projects, I’m actually half way through the other side by now. Mixing short rows with the above way of stitching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a scarf using that technique.

 

 

 

 

 

And this is how it started:

1. mixing double knit and stockinet

2. Mixing dk & double strand:

Modular Pictures

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The idea of making a modular picture always fascinates me. Does it really work?

My first attempt was the tree picture. It’s partially modular and you can read more about it here (scroll down): http://www.pictureknitting.com/gator_lake.html

It’s hard to see but the right part of the soil is knitted upward while the trees etc are knitted sideways, with the idea of taking advantage of variegating yarns in different directions. By the time I started knitting I forgot it and just picked the yarn I fancied…      It’s modular in knitting 2 directions in the same piece, but does not have inc/dec(so it’s not a real module).

This is my second modular attempt. I used a small chart I had for a picture knitting class and lots of little left over yarns (I belong to the group that can not throw even itsy bitsy piece of yarn). Still needs work, but it was so much fun to knit and totally impossible to tell what’s going on until the very end.

My favorite three

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Well, one day I’ll learn how to put the photos side by side, for now – this will have to do.  These are my last 3 pictures, and maybe because of not being able to knit as much as I like, I appreciate them more (usually I don’t like my pictures so much in the beginning).

Hope you’ll enjoy them too…  Read more about them in my website: The top picture is here

The middle one (my lily pond) here

and last, the everything/nothing piece here. I love looking at this piece from all 4 directions, so it has 4 hangers on the back and can hang any which way.

The charts for the water-lilies and the Nothing/Everything are in my knitting books.