More photos here:

Front view, outside
Front view, inside
Back view, outside
Back view, inside
Top view, outside
Top view, inside

So a bit about the creation of this hat and especially the unusual feature: The compass points (N, E, S, and W). If you think about what double-knitting normally does to an orientable motif (i.e. one that has a definite right and left side), these letters cannot be done in typical double-knitting. In order to make the letters N and S show up as an N and an S on the other side, I had to make them non-reversible. I've talked about the technique before. The E and the W are also special -- since when the compass is turned inside out, the E and the W switch places, I made them nonreversible with the E on one side of the fabric and the W on the other. I tried to illustrate it here but I think it just made it more confusing. What you're looking at in that photo is a collage of 4 shots of the hat, each showing the front of the front letter and the back of the back letter. In the future, I think I might make the N larger than the other 3 letters, as is often the custom, and I might make the points of the compass rose itself longer (and thus the hat a little taller). But I'm very happy with the way the top turned out.

On a different note, I dropped in on the Brookline Knitsmiths group this past Sunday and ran into Colleen (the Subway Knitter) who has taken a couple of DK classes from me at Circles. She mentioned that she's done a double-knit hat, and I told her I'd link to it. So here it is. It inspires me to do something I'd been planning on doing anyway -- a nice 6-pointed double-knit snowflake pattern for the top of a hat. I'll probably play with it alone before incorporating it into a hat.

More photos here:

Side view, inside
Top view, outside
Top view, inside
Front view, outside
Front view, inside

In other news, I got mentioned in another blog and evidently inspired another designer to double-knit a scarf -- with bananas on it, no less! Check it at Moonlight Stitches. Also, I went to the Dawson Forte Cashmere Sample sale in Canton last weekend. I'll post later with found objects!

11.20.06

So one of my students at the recent Hat Class at Circles in JP finished her hat and posted to her blog about it. She made some cool modifications to my usual technique for the top, which I plan to play with a bit on my next hat.

And now, since it's an ill wind that blows no minds (or something like that), I'll post something I forgot to post a while ago. After I finished the Apple hat, I decided to take the non-reversible technique to its logical next step -- two totally different patterns on each side. The first is the Algiers logo from my Algiers hat, and the second is a flower motif from an Alice Starmore book.

Now, if that doesn't break your brain, I'll show you the double-knit chart that I followed to make it. Simple, really. No, really. Remind me to tell you about it sometime.

11.13.06

As promised multiple times, I finally got around to writing up the Crow Scarf pattern (400k). It's not exactly what I originally conceived of but experienced knitters should be able to handle it. I don't cover the actual double-knitting technique(s) but at least you get charts and some amusing backstory. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments or whatever, except questions like "How do I double-knit?" For that, you'll have to do some research, or wait for the book.

11.11.06

Here are a few shots of the double-knit hat I did while teaching my Hat Class at Circles in Jamaica Plain. I kept the gauge a little larger than I'd usually use, mostly because I was also finishing the Crow Scarf and needed to make sure I could also keep up with my students. Actually, most of the hat was done in the week preceding the second class. I hope my students will send photos of their hats so I can post them here as well. For those interested, the yarn is O-Wool which I picked up on my last visit to my family in Vermont. There's still enough in the balls for at least one more hat.

More photos here:

The other side
Inside top
Outside top

11.03.06

I'm not feeling very verbally creative tonight, so I just wanted to say that the Crow II is done and sold to the friend who commissioned me to do it. This one cost $200.00. If you want me to do it again, it'll now be $20,000.00. I swear, it's the most boring thing I've ever knit and I've done it twice now. I've been saying I'll post the pattern and it's been a while now and I never sent the pattern to anyone, so I'll post it soon. I promise. Meanwhile, here's a shot of Brendan wearing his new scarf, in glorious 70s-vision. Currently on the needles: a basic double-knit hat that I'm using to teach my double-knit hat class. Photos on that later.

08.30.06

The latest item in my "procrastinating-on-the-crow-scarf" series is the Apple Hat. This is a round version of the apple concept down below in 05.17.06. This hat was a double challenge for me: incorporate some type of non-reversible double knitting into a garment, and figure out how to lock the two sides together without changing colors. As you can see, there's quite a bit of solid color around those apples, and in double knitting, solid expanses of color are separate from each other. For example, if you make a double-knit hat that's solid double-stockinette all the way to the top, you'll be able to take the inner and outer layers and separate them to make some kind of oblong hollow thing. Unless you're making a pillow, this isn't the greatest thing. But sometimes you want all that empty space; sometimes it's a design element. Well, I figured it out, but it doesn't totally work. You can see the round a few stitches from the bottom that's got some little dimples in it. Those are the places where the yarn from the stitch on the back is twisted into the back of the front stitch. Needless to say, I didn't do it again. Rather than have those little bits all over my hat that look like I made a mistake, I opted to just dapple the top with dots, which look nice-ish and hold the top together. I really enjoyed the top of this hat, which allowed me to incorporate colored bits into the decreases. It gave me a great idea for a future hat. More on that later.

Hey! Don't forget to visit me at the Boston Knitout this September 24th.

More photos here:

White on black
Outside top
Inside top

Yeah, I know the hat's too big. I need to work on my sizing. It'll be nice and warm for me this winter though.

07.05.06

As promised, here's a shot of the triple-knit hat in finished form. I'm still not happy with the way it closes, and I made some mistakes which I'm sure nobody else will notice. But it's a proof-of-concept piece, and the concept definitely works. The next one I do will be one that looks less like some corporate logo, and is divisible by 6 instead of 8. The 8-decrease pattern was really the killer here -- it made it slope in an odd way that kind of came to a point at the top. I didn't know this would happen until it was far too late. I'd already ripped out the decrease rounds once, and I highly recommend to anyone who ever does triple-knitting: NEVER make a mistake so bad you have to rip it out -- you almost might as well start over. Anyway ... the hat turned out a bit taller than I was hoping, so the shot below has a brim turned up. At the brim, it's about 5 layers thick. A great skiing hat, no doubt. Next project: the crow for a little while, then on to the Apple hat, which has a new challenge for me that I'll talk about later.

More shots are available below:

Outside
Outside Top
Inside
Inside Top
Inside with Brim

06.24.06

Well, the reason you haven't heard anything from me in the past month is either that I've been continuing on my commissioned Crow Scarf II, which you've already seen so it's not newsworthy; or I've been working on something totally new. You may have heard me talking idly about triple-knitting. It wasn't a joke, and here's the proof. Technically, it's three-color double knitting, but I call it triple-knitting for short. So far, I've only done it in the round, but I'm theorizing ways of doing it in the flat that have some connections to braiding and/or intarsia. If you want to try this yourself, I'll give you a hint -- it's the same as double-knitting in the round normally, except that you have three working colors. The stitches are worked the same way, but you keep the unused yarn between the front and back, which in effect strands the unused color between layers. If you consider that, there's no technical limit to the number of colors you could use -- but there are practical limits. With yarn this size (it's Cascade 220), I wouldn't do more than 4 colors. This hat is no thicker than my previous double-knit hat which uses Lamb's Pride, but any more colors and I think it'd get too thick to wear. If I wanted more than 4 colors using this technique, I'd have to use thinner yarn. The way the hat will eventually close up will be pretty neat as well, and I'll post the final thing when it's done (not too long now, I've just started the decrease rows).

Also, more classes at Circles! I believe I'll be teaching another double-knitting class July 23rd.

05.17.06

So my class went well, thanks for asking. It was a little larger than I should have taken on, but live and learn -- there were students turned away so there will be another class. There will also probably be another class taught as a "refresher" because I wasn't able to get everyone across the threshold and totally confident with the technique. If you're interested, go to Circles and check out their class listings.

But that's not the reason I'm posting today. While I was teaching the class, someone managed to deposit a color-changed stitch on one side but not the other. It got me thinking about non-reversible techniques. I had been thinking of doing a hat with the Apple logo on it, but then I realized that since the Apple logo is directional (i.e. the "bite" is only on one side), the reverse of the logo would be a mirror image. I wanted to make a hat with the white-on-black or the black-on-white look, to be worn by the user depending on their preference. I needed a way to make the logo not fully reversible; I thought about it for a couple of days, then plotted a chart and nearly broke my brain making this work. But it does work. The possibilities, as usual, are endless. I'm thinking of a knitted tic-tac-toe board with 9 swatches that are double-knit with an X on one side and an O on the other. More fodder for my book, whoopee!

04.19.06

This is kind of a "proof-of-concept" swatch to see whether double-knit cables would work. Well, they do. I'm not even going to show the backside because, down to the colors, it's identical. The only downside is that the cable will have to blend into one or the other color on either side. I have solutions for this, of course -- textured double-knitting would place reverse-stockinette on the border, which would at least provide a contrasting texture ... or triple knitting, something I'm theorizing right now but haven't tried yet. Keep posted! more oddities to come...

04.15.06

A little while ago, I set out to do a double-knit hat from the brim up like a normal hat, and with full decreases and stuff in reversible colors. I settled on a repeat of 5 motifs around the body of the hat using the logo of a favorite Boston-area cafe. With only this sketched icon on graph paper as a pattern, I made this hat, which I simply call "Algiers". It's made in Lamb's Pride Worsted weight on #7 circulars and DPs.

More photos of this:
The "inside"
Detail of the logo, outside
Detail of the logo, inside
Detail of the top, outside
Detail of the top, inside

Thanks to my styrofoam head, Shelby, for modeling it for me. It's actually made for my head, which is considerably larger.

04.08.06

So I finished the Sierpinski carpet double-knit thing. Actually, I finished it some time ago but didn't get around to blocking it until today. The blocking was amusing, to say the least. I had cut a dowel for the top, and was planning on hanging it from thumbtacks in a window, then spritzing it while weighting the bottom edge. But by serendipity, the dowel was the perfect length to wedge into the window frame without the use of fasteners. This is clearly not the best method of blocking in the world, but it did effectively stretch the squares to, well, square.

Check out the back and the unorthodox blocking procedure.

02.07.06

So I'm challenging myself to do things with double-knitting that haven't been done before. I'm seriously thinking of writing a book. If anyone has any ideas of publishers who'd be willing to entertain the idea of publishing a less-than-hip/chic/trendy book that takes a tough technique and makes it even tougher, let me know. Anyway, here's a hat I made. For the crown, I used a pattern I got in Vermont that was published in 2000. Despite that, I haven't seen this style of crown before. For the brim, I double-knit in the round a pattern I adapted from an old Alice Starmore book. It fits me nicely but the cast-off is a little loose; I'll do a different cast-off next time I try this style. Double-knitting in the round is quite odd, but lots of fun, especially since I double-knit from opposite sides of the work using slip-stitches, rather than the same side working all stitches in alternating colors. What this means is that the two sides of the work are spirals in opposite directions. If that's hard to visualize, wait for the book.

The second photo shows the hat in a configuration that would be impossible to wear, but aptly shows the shape of the crown as well as the reversible brim.

Sorry about the color problems; I really need to replace my lamp with something less yellow so I don't have to do color-corrections in photoshop. I never seem to quite get it right. The crown is charcoal and blue, the brim is charcoal and cream. Oh, and it's Araucania Nature Wool, if you wanted to know.

01.08.06

Some progress on my level-4 Sierpinski carpet. More on the thing itself below at 10.17.05. It's going pretty well, and getting lots of positive feedback whenever I show it off. True, it's not perfectly square, but it'll block easily. Now if I can just figure out what to do with it when it's done.

12.26.05

As promised, now that it's done, here's a shot of my sister wearing her new Crow Scarf. Yes, I am working on a pattern for this. If anyone's interested in the charts alone, I'll be glad to send them.

Also, here's another shot of my sister showing off the reversability.

12.25.05

Merry xmas! Not much to say, at home with my family for the holidays. I surprised my mother with a handknit stocking this year. It's ... umm ... really massive. That's what I get for following a pattern rather than going with my own ideas. But this was a good experience. I modified the pattern somewhat so I'd get to learn some new moves. This is the first time I've ever done fair-isle colorwork, turned a short-row heel, or done a kitchener stitch.

10.17.05

I've been itching to do some more double knitting and use up some from my stash. My mother gave me a basket of yarn last xmas, including two large skeins of peruvian wool in nice earth tones. I settled on a level-4 sierpinski carpet pattern and plotted out 1/9 of it (because my damned expensive motif-plotting software, wonderful though it may be, is limited to 80x100, and I needed 85x85). To be honest, I haven't needed to look at it much because I know what a sierpinski carpet is supposed to look like. It's been fun so far and it's coming out well. Here's a shot of the first 9 level-2s and a little tiny bit of the next 6. Yeah, it's just going to be a square. Too small for a rug, too large for ... well, anything else. My alternative would have been to do a scarf out of a bunch of level-3s and I figured I'd get bored quickly. I'll try to "market" this thing when it's done. As what, I couldn't say.

by the way, I also developed a new (and I think it really is new) cast-on for double knitting. Remind me to tell you about it sometime. You can see what it looks like in these photos too.

10.17.05

Also around the same time in august I was working on an intrinsic-twist mobius scarf. This was an experiment in alot of ways -- I didn't know how big around it would be, how wide it would be with only one skein of Manos, how the cast-on would work, etc. I tried the Cat Bordhi method of mobius cast-on, but got very frustrated with the result and resolved to design my own mobius cast-on. I adapted my two-needle long-tail cast-on that I used for the double helix scarf, and using a Denise set, I was able to create a very nice invisible mobius cast-on which grew into this critter here:

09.08.05

Ok, the reason i've been so late in posting is that, aside from overwork and spending lots of time with my girlfriend, i've been working mostly on things that will be gifts -- and thus, cannot be posted until they have been given. Since the middle of the summer (but in planning since last xmas), 9 knitters in my extended family have been working on a sampler afghan for my grandmother's 80th birthday. Well, that was in April, but we were realistic and decided to give it to her at the family reunion in august instead. My mother had been the mastermind behind it, envisioning a throw-size afghan made from autumn colors of Manos del Uruguay. But in late spring, she left for a 4-month research trip to Mongolia, and I said I'd take over coordinating the project. Well, to make a long story short, my side of the family (being myself, my sister and my mother) probably did nearly half of the thing, and i stitched it together on the hottest day of the summer before taking it high into the white mountains of northern new hampshire for the reunion ... where we still had to weave in ends in secret while grandmother was out of the house.

Here's a shot of it on the coffee table at home. You can't tell from the photo, but it's nearly 100 degrees F in there, and I've never liked A/C.

And here's my mother, my sister and I weaving in ends. One of my aunts' arms is also in the photo.

03.31.05

it looks like the other TG-folk have finished knitting this thing together. so check it out!

03.29.05

this is the front and back of my second square for the true grounds wall-hanging. it was alot of fun to make, although the pattern is not my own (i found it here. this is made from Araucania Nature Wool, and is roughly 8" square. Sadly, it's a little larger than the other squares, so in the final wall-hanging parts of it had to be obscured. not to worry -- i plan on making another, perhaps larger one.

click the image for a larger version

02.27.05

those who have knit with me in the past few weeks may have seen me working on this. it's a double-knit (i.e. mirror-image and reversed colors on the backside) scarf that i'm working on for my sister's xmas present. don't worry, she already knows about it. i was waiting until i reached the end of a skein to take the photo. this is two skeins (one for each side) of Lion Brand Alpaka (yet another great inexpensive wool discontinued because Lion is selling out to the novelty knitters. bah.) i have 6 more skeins of this stuff, so we'll see whether i need it all or can get away with 3x this length instead of 4. i designed this pattern using a photo of a crow, overlayed with a grid and filled in with black. the crows' feet on the middle section of the scarf (between the crows) are as much to keep the two layers locked together as to relieve my boredom in doing interminable double stockinette stitch. there are a couple of mistakes here and there, but (luckily) all minor and all on the "wrong" side.

click the image for a larger (350k) version

01.17.05

as requested, here is a photo of an afghan square i've finished. the knitting group that meets at the true grounds coffeeshop in ball square, somerville, is making a wall-hanging-type-thing for the cafe (shh! don't tell the owners & employees!) as an appreciation gift for their hospitality over the past several months. this is my contribution, done in a fantastic Farmhouse Yarns variegated (similar in gauge to Manos, but from CT):

click the image for a larger (350k) version

01.17.05

hey all. this portion of the antiblog will have photos of stuff i'm working on or have finished, in the fine old tradition of knitting blogs all over the web. many of the finished pieces will end up at my knitting site for sale, but the non-sale & gift-destined items will also be featured here.