Oolong knits

Andrea Mowry is fast becoming my (and everyone else's) favourite designer of scarves (although she also designs other garments). Rose Gold is her latest pattern. It is a brioche stitch wonder. You must follow the link and see how the gradient in the yarn is used to form beautiful stripes and how the brioche stitch is used to create different colours on both sides. This is a genius example of how to take the greatest advantage of a specific stitch and yarn. Brilliant.

It may not be obvious but, in sequence knitting, the total number of stitches in a row is as important to the final pattern that results from knitting a specific sequence as the sequence itself. Change it and the results will vary dramatically. This is nothing new, every knitter knows that the simplest of sequences, k1, p1 , results in either a 1x1 rib or seed stitch depending if one works in an odd or even number of stitches. With a 2 stitch sequence these are the only two possibilities, but, of course, more complex sequences allow for many more options and therefore creative freedom. The picture above (click on it to enlarge it), taken from Campochiaro's book, shows two (out of the 4) different possibilities obtained by changing the number of stitches, using the simple 1-row sequence k3, p1 . Talking about Campochiaro's book, in my previous post , I mentioned that I have not been able to read the book and that my reflections on this subject were my own. Unsurprisingly, i...

A design by Veera Välimäki. Breathing Space is a lovely sweater with an unusual construction. And all those stripes! Enough said.

I have already written quite a few posts on socks and even a few on sock heels in particular. And this is another one to add to the list. The Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Sox Therapist is fast becoming the most popular patterns on Ravelry. This is not a standard pattern but rather a (very long) full tutorial on how to knit almost any sock integrating this heel including extra advice on making sure the sock fits perfectly. Costing only a little bit more than $1 USD, it is not free but a real bargain. What is the Fish Lips Kiss Heel? You may want to know before spending your money on a pattern you may very well dislike. It is basically a short-row heel method that uses a very particular type of stitch replacing the traditional wraps-and-turns. The author of this pattern calls them twin stitches and there are two of them (or more exactly there are two ways of working the same twin stitch). The knit twin stitch (a twin stitch worked on the right side): and the purl twin stitch (a...

As promised last week, a design by Cecelia Campochiaro. BG is a collection of scarves that is a great illustration of the potential of colour work using sequence knitting. All of the BG scarves are made using the same "construction", which is not hard to guess by simple inspection. They only vary in the number of stitches in each section of the sequence. You have, from left to right, BG 1 , which is a simple seed stitch, BG 2 , BG 3 , BG 5 , BG 7 and BG 11 . An extremely simple sequence creates an elegant pattern of understated beauty and a great design for men, but use a gradient of bright colours and you have the collormill scarf .

Last week, I have discussed sequence knitting and I mentioned simple knit and purl combinations to begin with. Then I very briefly discussed that you can obviously use the same concept and include more complex stitches, like twisted stitches (worked through the back loop), increases, decreases, etc. Lace patterns can be worked this way, but also textures more sophisticated than simple knit and purl combinations (after the set-up row, brioche stitch is a well-known example). One other (pretty obvious) option that did not occur to me at the time of writing my post, but that is also explored in Campochiaro's book , is the use of colour. Well-known simple fair-isle patterns come to mind, but Campochiaro prefers the more interesting possibility of patterns obtained from knitting simple knit-purl combinations with one colour at a time (changing colours only on alternate rows or even only every two rows). This week's eye-candy will feature one of these designs. Another subject tha...

Binary is Michele Wang's take on sequence knitting. I admit it is unfair that I am using another designer's creation to illustrate this week's theme. All of Cecelia Campochiaro's designs are well worth some candy attention, but that is just what my problem was: too many options to choose from and without realizing it I have picked another designer's work. I promise to atone for my mistake on next week's candy.

Sequence knitting is nothing new, as you will realize as I go on explaining its meaning later on this post. But recently Cecelia Campochiaro studied this simple idea in depth and wrote a much acclaimed book on it. In the book she demonstrates the amazing potential of this very simple idea. Unfortunately it is difficult to buy the book outside the US, but that is only motivation for us to follow on Campochiaro's footsteps and do some research of our own. So what is sequence knitting? I will use Campochiaro's words to explain it: The concept of Sequence Knitting is simple: take a sequence of stitches and repeat them again and again. Depending on how you repeat them, different fabrics can be created. While a few of these fabrics are familiar, many are new to the knitting world. The most simple examples of this method are well known to even the beginner knitter. Here are some trivial sequences we all know extremely well : Sequence Stitch pattern k1 garter kn, ...