Sunday 5 August 2007

Hocus Pocus Crocus

I unpicked the duplicate stitch row from under the light-green reverse stocking stitch ridge.

I then had to decide whether to rip all the way down to the light green, or do something else. I had vowed to rip without hesitation if the situation demanded it, but when it came to the crunch, I couldn't face reknitting the bits that were okay.

I also knew I wanted to break up the solid brightness of the light-green.


So I threaded in a safety line top and bottom, and snipped the yarn. I then had live stitches which were the top of the bottom piece and another lot of live stitches which were the bottom of the top piece. Confused? Not as confused as I was, when it came time to rejoining the two pieces.

I thought of doing a three-needle bind-off, but I thought it would make the area of the join too bulky.

Just messing around, I threaded a long strand of the purple yarn through the upward pointing loops and the downward pointing loops, alternating them one on one. I liked the effect. I was careful to make the thread loose enough to match the tension of the knitted stitches.

Still just messing around, I then threaded the purple yarn back the other way, this time weaving it through every second loop. It gives a really interesting effect, and the tension is good. I hope you can see in the close-up photo how it worked.

Now the question remains: do I do the same thing at the top of the light-green stripe? My pattern doesn't have to be symmetrical.


Oh yes, I break all the rules, and join colours in on purl rows too. I really like the nubs showing. It almost looks like top-stitching in sewing techniques.

I can see the yarn play -
purple:"It's my turn now"
green:"No, I'm not ready to go!"
purple:"Okay, just a little bit more then."

I've been doing that purl row colour joining quite a bit throughout. I don't know why all the advice books say don't do it. I like the effect.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really like the combination of colours and adding in the Opal makes such a difference. I have done that to a jumper: I grafted the 2 pieces back together again like a sock toe, but your creative joining looks decorative, and the purl colour joining adds to the embroidery look!!!