More design development

There were some interesting cloisters at the Abbey which I used to inspire a couple of stitch patterns. I was teaching cables as one of my workshops on the knitting week in France and used the cloisters pictures to inspire some cable designs.

I used a filter in Photoshop to turn the photo into an outline image (at the top of the page above) and then traced over this image. This helped me to understand how the arches work with each other and interlink.

I traced off a section of arches and then payed around with the tracing to see how they could be linked. I liked the images on the double page image above but felt this was quite complicated so decided to use the simpler image above to translate into a cable pattern. I like Bavarian Twisted Stitch patterns so decided to try to produce this type of cable.

This was the first graph I tried drawing but was not happy with the way the cables were linking.

This was the next chart I drew but was still not very happy with the way the cables linked together. The chart wasn't giving me the type of pattern I wanted.

This 3rd chart did seem to give the the arch shapes I was trying to produce so I knitted this graph.

I did quite like the pattern this produced and I think it would work as an all over pattern on a larger scale as I think the repeats would link in quite well.

As well as developing the stitch pattern above I also had a look through the stitch pattern books to see if I could find any cable patterns that resemble arches. These 2 samples both worked quite well.

Having knitted these 2 samples from charts I though I could develop my own version combining elements from both samples. The resulting chart and sample are shown below.

I like the way the cables work into a point with moss (seed) stitch and reverse stocking stitch filling in the other areas. I haven't thought how I would use this sample yet beyond making the basic sample for the workshop.

Designs for French Treats Holiday based on tree bark

This next knitted sample was developed from a picture of tree bark taken on a visit to an Abbey. I used a filter in Photoshop to generate the image on the left and then traced it onto tracing paper (the image on the right).

I found a pattern in one of my stitch library books that looked a bit like the tree bark.

This gave me the idea that I could develop a knit and purl pattern to look like the bark. I copied the tracing onto stitch related graph paper and in fact generated 2 graphs as shown below.

One graph had more variation between the knit and purl stitches than the other but I ended up knitting the lower graph. When I knitted the sample I decided that I would use the side that was mostly stocking stitch (the knit stitch showing) as the right side.

This was the resulting sample which has been knitted with a cable edging. However after knitting it I think the reverse side would have worked better, so here is the sample with the reverse side showing.

Knit and purl patterns can be viewed from either side but often the purl or reverse stocking stitch side can look more interesting as the purl stitches visually push forward and vertical runs of knit stitches. Putting the cable edging onto the sample stops it from being completely reversible.