double knitting and request for ideas
Jan. 16th, 2024 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bismuth209I've been learning double knitting!
And instead of the normal thing of doing a couple patterns made by others and then maybe learning how to make my own, I first made a small little test to learn the technique of double knitting.
You can see that I was still struggling a bit with the tension. The first tutorial I watched, the one by NibleNeedles, wanted me to use a selvedge (edge stitch), that just Does Not work for me. Knitting through the back loop is VERY difficult when knitting Portuguese style.
And then I made a chart of some fish. I initially wasn't going to do those lines trailing behind the top fish, but then i accidentally made 1.5 stitches the wrong colour. Yes, 1.5, or 3, because I accidentally made 2 stitches on the yellow background side blue, when that wasn't planned, and only 1 stitch on the blue side was yellow.
I then figured out how to do it on purpose (and made the random stitches look a bit more purposeful with some other lines trailing behind the fish. nobody will notice)
I first learnt that it could be done on purpose from this pattern. I however have zero attachment to Star Wars, and I don't know who I'd gift it too. So. I made my own pattern. After some figuring out*, I first knit this.
And that brings us to the present, I'm currently knitting a caterpillar and a butterfly!
The way it works (which is the same as the simpler irregular double knitting chart) is that I made the pictures for both, and then placed them over each other, using the "difference" blending mode, which made every point where the yellow and blue overlapped, magenta-ish. And now, the magenta and the light grey mean that it's business as usual, every pixel is 2 stitches, and to get green on the front side and white on the backside, I need to knit the first stitch with green, and then the second of the pair with white, and if I'm working on the side where green is the foreground, that means I just did a "magenta" on the chart. And if I need a "yellow" on the chart, so where I just have a caterpillar, I just do 2 white, because that's the background on the butterfly's side.
I'm already swimming with ideas for the next one(s). I want to do more things with matching images, such as the caterpillar that turns into the butterfly, or perhaps things with dualities. So far I've got!
pen / sword
seed / plant
seedling (tiny plant) / tree
dinosaur / meteor
cat (laying /sitting)
light bulb / sun
match / fire
sun / moon
ice (snowflake) / fire
lock / key
ouroboros / something to symbolise broken cycles
very inconspicuous treasure chest / mimic (from DnD)
something with inside / outside
And I want more ideas! I would love people's suggestions! Especially I want to do some fannish things, particularly with Doctor Who if possible. And I like symbolism of transformation and duality and stuff. And If anyone has concrete suggestions for that last one!
"thinking out loud now, on side C i want colour X to be the background, and colour Y to be foreground
so where there's pink and yellow i want Y on side C. and where there's blue and grey i want X "
"on side B i want colour Y to be the background, and colour X to be foreground
so on side B, blue and pink are foreground and therefore X, and yellow and grey are background and therefore Y"
"X-X
X-Y
Y-Y
Y-X"
By the way, the reason all the images are behind a cut is because they're mostly rather large images, and if you don't want to load them you don't have to this way. I think.
And instead of the normal thing of doing a couple patterns made by others and then maybe learning how to make my own, I first made a small little test to learn the technique of double knitting.
a picture of my first foray into double knitting
You can see that I was still struggling a bit with the tension. The first tutorial I watched, the one by NibleNeedles, wanted me to use a selvedge (edge stitch), that just Does Not work for me. Knitting through the back loop is VERY difficult when knitting Portuguese style.
And then I made a chart of some fish. I initially wasn't going to do those lines trailing behind the top fish, but then i accidentally made 1.5 stitches the wrong colour. Yes, 1.5, or 3, because I accidentally made 2 stitches on the yellow background side blue, when that wasn't planned, and only 1 stitch on the blue side was yellow.
some doubleknit fishies
I then figured out how to do it on purpose (and made the random stitches look a bit more purposeful with some other lines trailing behind the fish. nobody will notice)
I first learnt that it could be done on purpose from this pattern. I however have zero attachment to Star Wars, and I don't know who I'd gift it too. So. I made my own pattern. After some figuring out*, I first knit this.
picture of a very simple irregular double knitting pattern and project
And that brings us to the present, I'm currently knitting a caterpillar and a butterfly!
the charts
and the knitting
The way it works (which is the same as the simpler irregular double knitting chart) is that I made the pictures for both, and then placed them over each other, using the "difference" blending mode, which made every point where the yellow and blue overlapped, magenta-ish. And now, the magenta and the light grey mean that it's business as usual, every pixel is 2 stitches, and to get green on the front side and white on the backside, I need to knit the first stitch with green, and then the second of the pair with white, and if I'm working on the side where green is the foreground, that means I just did a "magenta" on the chart. And if I need a "yellow" on the chart, so where I just have a caterpillar, I just do 2 white, because that's the background on the butterfly's side.
I'm already swimming with ideas for the next one(s). I want to do more things with matching images, such as the caterpillar that turns into the butterfly, or perhaps things with dualities. So far I've got!
And I want more ideas! I would love people's suggestions! Especially I want to do some fannish things, particularly with Doctor Who if possible. And I like symbolism of transformation and duality and stuff. And If anyone has concrete suggestions for that last one!
*I sent messages like
"thinking out loud now, on side C i want colour X to be the background, and colour Y to be foreground
so where there's pink and yellow i want Y on side C. and where there's blue and grey i want X "
"on side B i want colour Y to be the background, and colour X to be foreground
so on side B, blue and pink are foreground and therefore X, and yellow and grey are background and therefore Y"
"X-X
X-Y
Y-Y
Y-X"
By the way, the reason all the images are behind a cut is because they're mostly rather large images, and if you don't want to load them you don't have to this way. I think.
