Knitting With Paint

You probably think that the image above is a photo of a detail from a knitted item, but it's not. It's an oil painting. Yes, seriously. Brazilian artist Rogerio Degaki, whose pop art often references formative stages in life, created a series of these paintings, born from childhood memories of being made to wear handmade sweaters that he didn't like lest he hurt the feelings of his mother and aunts who had knitted the sweaters for him. He decided he'd create some knitted patterns he would have liked to wear as a child, and then, because he's not a knitter, render them in paint. And how on earth does he do that? "The surface is divided into rows and columns, in which I distribute the 'knitting stitches,' according to the image I want to paint," Degaki says. "From there, I overlap up to six color layers to compose the background, the stitches and the brightness of wool. It's a bit mathematical and repetitive, but definitely worth it."




You can read more about Degaki's work on My Modern Met and see the rest of this series, as well as his other work, on his web site.

Much as I admire Degaki's paintings, the back story left me wincing. I can only hope the many children upon whom I have foisted knitted items don't feel the same way about the things I have made for them. I don't exactly want to walk into an art gallery someday and see some knitted-related childhood traumas that I induced writ large.

Blocking Board Blueprint

Over the last year or so I've been making a concerted effort to improve my knitting skills. I learned to knit as a child and once I got to a certain skill level as a teenager, I just stayed there. I thought I was an expert knitter because I could easily make patterns designated as expert level, but I wasn't. My projects did turn out quite well, but there was room for improvement, especially in the finishing details. I only knew one way to cast on and one way to cast off, there were a lot of techniques I had never tried at all, I didn't know how to seam a garment properly, and I'd never blocked a sweater (I did press the seams). Besides improving in all these areas, I'd also like to acquire some design skills. I do freely alter patterns to suit my needs and tastes, and I have made sweaters without patterns, but it was all pretty basic stuff and I've never written a pattern. I'd like to learn to design more complex knitwear to a professional standard so some of the designs I have in my head can become a reality.

Towards all these ends, I recently decided I would get myself a blocking board and start blocking my work. An ironing board can be used for blocking, but it isn't big enough to work for anything but small projects. You can use a mattress, but who wants the bother of unmaking and remaking the bed before and after, to say nothing of having the bed out of commission for a few days at a time? You can use towels on a table, but those towels are going to shift about and make the task difficult, and again you won't be able to use the table for a day. A special purpose blocking board was what I wanted.

I priced blocking boards and found one of the size I wanted would cost something like $90(USD) plus shipping and probably duty, so I decided to make one for much less, and did. In case anyone would like a tutorial on how to make one for themselves, here's how I did it.

Items required for this project:

• a sheet of plywood in whatever size you like
• enough 1/2"–1" thick foam padding to cover the surface area of the plywood
• a piece of gingham fabric six inches longer and six inches wider than the plywood
• glue
• scissors
• a tape measure
• an upholstery stapler and staples
• a hammer, screwdriver and pair of grips to deal with the staples that won't cooperate
• a sewing machine and thread (optional)





I bought this 30" x 48" sheet of plywood from Home Depot for $12.42 (CDN). I would have preferred it to be about 30" x 60" but I would have had to buy a huge sheet of plywood and had it cut down, which meant it would be much more expensive with a lot of wastage, and so I settled for this size. It will do. I should be able to fit the pieces for a sweater for me on it, or do a dress or a coat if I want to, though I'll have to block those pieces separately.





Then I went to Fabricland and bought foam padding and a 1.25 metre length of green gingham. It would probably be better to get a sheet of foam for this project, but the day I was at Fabricland they had packages of four 1" chair seat foam squares on sale, while the sheet foam would have cost quite a bit more. It being spring, the gingham was also on sale. A gingham or checked fabric is the best thing for a homemade blocking board, because it gives you a grid to work on and does a lot of the measuring for you. Total cost of the foam and gingham was $16.22 (CDN).

I placed the foam squares on the board and cut two of them to fit, then I glued them down and left them to dry for a day or so.





I cut my gingham fabric to size, leaving a 3" margin all around. I also took an extra five minutes to overcast the edges of the fabric on my sewing machine to be sure there would be no fraying, but that's not necessary. As you can see here I've folded the edges under to make the back look neater, and that should prevent and/or hide any fraying.

I placed the fabric on the board as straight as I could, stapled the four corners from underneath, and then flipped the board over to staple the rest securely. Some of the staples were cantankerous things that wouldn't go in properly, so that's when I either pulled them out with vice grips and tried again with new staples, or hammered them the rest of the way in.





The finished board. You can see the lines where the foam squares meet — they weren't exactly precision cut to 1" — even though I tried mixing and matching them to get them to be level. But it won't affect the efficacy of the board, so whatever. The gingham isn't lined up to be perfectly straight either, but there's no need for architectural precision as we're not exactly designing a basilica here.

I'll be placing the board across the stair railing like this whenever I want to use it. It's the perfect place for it: it's at a good height to work on and it won't be in my way while the pieces dry.





The blocking board put to use for the first time. I invested in three packs of 40 rust-proof stainless steel pins for the purpose, but ran out when I blocked this child's sweater, so looks like I could use another two or three packs. When the board isn't in use, I store it on its edge behind the cupboard you see in the background.

The total cost of the board was $28.64(CDN), though I am not counting the cost of the glue, thread, staples and other equipment I already owned. The gingham and fabric should last a fairly long time, and when they do wear out can be replaced and the plywood reused. With an hour's work I saved myself close to $100, so I'm pleased.

This seemed rather too easy a project to really require a tutorial, but given that I'm running a knitting blog it seemed too on point not to share, so I wrote it up in the hope that it'll be of use and interest to some people.

Have a Forking Good Time Making Pom-Poms

Here's a video from the people of Loom a Hat that will tell you how to use a fork to make pom-poms. You will be limited to making very small pom-poms when you use this technique, but I suppose if you wanted to move on to bigger ones you could use a slotted spatula or the garden fork.

Knitting in the Victorian Style

When it came time to write a post for Victoria Day, I kicked myself for having released a post about Queen Victoria and her knitting back in April. I wish I'd thought of saving it for today. However, what's posted is posted, so today's post will consist of my presenting a selection of some authentic Victorian-era knitting patterns that are attractive and useable by today's standards to you for your enjoyment and possible future projects.

Please be aware that these historical patterns, although they often are available on the web for free thanks to the wonderful concept that is public domain, probably aren't for the beginning or even intermediate knitter. Patterns have become much more user-friendly and standardized in the past century, and these antique patterns often don't provide basic information such as required yardage amounts or stitch gauge, and can be generally really confusing. The sizing will also tend to run really small and have to be altered. You'll need to have significant knitting experience and a certain tolerance level required for the frustrating and time-consuming process of figuring out the patterns.

If nothing I've featured here works for you, there are lots of Victorian-era patterns available online. Project Gutenberg has a number of Victorian knitting instruction books and the Antique Pattern Library has an extensive selection of patterns available, all for free. Iva Rose has quite a good selection of restored reproductions for sale. Your local library might also be helpful. And one thing to be aware of when trying to find authentic Victorian patterns is that Ravelry patterns tagged with "Victorian" are usually so.... not.





This beaded purse is from Isabella Beeton's Beeton's Book of Needlework, and was originally published in 1870. The pattern is available for free and would make a lovely evening bag.






This baby bootie pattern is available for free over on Doodles.







This knitted neckerchief is another Isabella Beeton original and is also a free pattern.





This lovely little baby's knitted frock was originally published in Weldon's Practical Needlework: Practical Knitter, Second Series in 1886, but has been re-released by Interweave.





This little vest is for a child of three, and was originally published in Weldon's Practical Needlework: Practical Knitter, Tenth Series in 1888. Again, it's been released in a new edition by Interweave. I'd be inclined to make it in my size.





This design was originally known as "Gent's Knickerbocker Hose" and was published in Weldon's Practical Needlework: Practical Knitter, Twenty-Eighth Series in 1895. Now of course, they're going to be called men's socks and will be worn with, and mostly under, trousers.





This acorn-shaped pattern for an emery cushion was originally published in Weldon's Practical Needlework: Practical Knitter, Thirty-First Series in 1896, which again was republished by Interweave Press.





This reticule is another pattern from Weldon's Practical Needlework: Practical Knitter, Thirty-First Series in 1896. It's 10" x 6" and could easily be enlarged or downsized as the knitter wishes.

Happy Victoria Day!

Knitter's Magazine K111: A Review

Knitter's Magazine has published issue K111, and it's a "family friendly" issue, which means it has at least a few children's and men's patterns. Don't you male knitters just love being made to feel like knitting magazines are talking around you to the nearest female knitter? Let's have a look at its patterns.





Not liking this boy's pullover. The overall shaping is good, but the contrast colour and the drawstring are detracting from it. Drawstrings usually don't cross over one another and just hang there like that, as though they're biding their time until they can perversely disappear back into the casing. I'd omit the drawstring and do the contrasting colour a little differently, such as in a few stripes in the cuffs and hem and another stripe in the collar.





This child's dress isn't quite there. It looks baggy and saggy, for one thing. Well, it is baggy and saggy — the stripes on the bodice are visibly pulling out of shape. And though I like both stripe patterns, I don't think they are quite working together. I'd pick one stripe pattern and use it for the whole dress, and maybe just make the scale of the pattern a little bigger on the skirt. The colourway isn't quite working either, so I'd tweak that a little.





Whenever I see a model in this kind of tilted back pose, I am reminded of Jerry Seinfeld's bit on how women stand in front of the mirror when they're shopping: garment held in front of the woman, woman's body leaning back at a 60 degree angle, one leg held out. We women do that to give the garment a filled-out look so we can get a sense of what it might look like when worn, but Seinfeld's theory is that women are trying to find the perfect outfit to wear for those days we spend leaning back at a 60 degree angle with one leg stuck out. The fact that this model is having to literally bend over backwards to make this sweater look good is not a good sign, because women need clothes that look good when they're on and we're standing upright. My suspicion is that this sweater looks a tad on the bulky and shapeless side in ordinary poses.





I actually don't mind this design, but don't understand why this colourway was chosen for it. The combination is way too "peasant at the discothèque", and one of these things does not belong. I'd make this in a non-retina-burning colourway, such as cream and navy and olive. This also is a design that belongs on a woman with a modest bustline with a waistline she doesn't mind emphasizing.





I actually rather like this design, but think it needs to be done in a more sophisticated colourway to work. Doing it in these candied, little girl-ish colours makes it look a little too home ec project. And we have the tilted back pose again, which may mean the fit is less sleek than it appears here.





I am trying to figure out how they got the solid and translucent stripes in this piece. My best guess is the solid stripes are knitted with two strands of yarn. It's a clever effect, though it isn't very practical for streetwear and the baggy fit's not going to be too flattering. It would make a decent coverup for the beach, though.





This is one of those patterns I end up peering at trying to figure out exactly what's going on. This appears to be a sweater pattern that happens to be worn with a crocheted skirt, not a dress pattern or two-piece pattern as I thought at first glance. But I like it. The colour blocking effect is well-done, the overall effect is crisp and striking, and this is a sweater a woman can wear with jeans or shorts or a skirt all summer long and that will look good on almost every woman.





Quite like this cardigan. It's simple enough to go with a lot of other things, yet pretty enough to be distinctive. The fit does look a little baggy, but that's easily remedied.





Knitter's Magazine put this look on the cover of this issue, and I don't know why as there's nothing special about it at all and they do have much better designs in this issue. Totally basic top that I don't quite know why designers bother to produce anymore, since there are so many identical patterns out there already.





This one just isn't working. The front pieces actually do match up but the design makes them look as though they don't. The edgings look rough. The resulting look is just kind of odd, and I don't know what on earth a woman could wear this with but a plain white top and purple or green skirt or pants or maybe jeans. If you want a vest with a shawl collar (the collar does sit so well), I'd recommend making this in one colour or in a beautiful variegated yarn, with different edgings and buttons all the way down the front.





Very nice classic man's cardigan that many men would be happy to wear.





Oh dear. This style of cardigan can be an elegantly relaxed look done right and on a woman it suits, but it's not a good idea to render it in novelty yarns, or even hand-dyed yarns, which just cheapens the look, especially when the yarns chosen don't work together.





This tiered skirt would have been a cute look if the top two tiers weren't done in that very loose gauge. I mean, what did the knitter use to make them, her fingers? They just look like a mistake.





I don't think I know many, if any, men who would like and wear this look. Or any women for that matter. I know menswear is damn boring, but trying too hard to reinvent the wheel is not the answer. There are good points to this design, such as the check stitched front edging, but the stripes and colour blocking is overdone and the purple and orange colourway isn't going to fly with too many men. Simplify the colour blocking, work on the colour scheme and use a more basic button and you might have something that would suit significantly more men.




An entrelac pattern geometric-cut spencer. I can't help finding it kind of fun, but that's probably the fact that I like the yarn used. When I imagine this in a colourway I don't like, I have to admit my review of it is perfectly savage. Hardly any women will look good in this piece, and it won't look right with many outfits other than say, a very simple jersey dress with no horizontal seamlines.





Classic boy's cardigan.





Quite like this child's cardigan. The shape is good, the crocheted edgings make it look polished, and the colours used make it look fresh and playful.





I don't dislike this top, but it does look like it needs a little something. The middy collar and the texture are nice touches, but I'd take the look steps farther, probably by doing the collar in a contrasting colour and adding a belt-like detailing or some edging in the contrast colour to pull the design together.

Initially It Might Have Seemed Like a Good Idea

The bag in the picture above is the "Initial Knitting Bag" pattern, published circa 1942. As you can see, it's the perfect accessory for your beautifully tailored gray flannel suit and silk blouse. Since you may not have such items in your closet, it'll probably just have to be your knitting bag. A crocheted knitting bag, which will be a daily reminder of you why you are knitting and not crocheting, and which will also double as a dust mop. Who could ask for more?

Coming up: Look for the review of Knitter's Magazine issue K111 tomorrow morning!

It's a Knitted Voodoo Thing

Voodoo, also titled Mini-Me, is a stop animation short created by Wonky Films and featuring two knitted characters named Knit and Purl. Wonky Films has also produced two more films featuring the same knitted characters: Stuffing Up and Tickle. These knitted little guys have won the Bablegum film festival's Jury Runner Up Award and appeared on BBC Big Screens across the U.K. to help promote Children in Need.