We’re starting to see the odd teaser for Season Three (autumn) of 2019. It’s surprisingly cool here this morning, and I’m wearing an actual jumper. Confession: I bought rather than knitted it, and one of the twinnage would like me to make him one, but I’m puzzled by what the stitch might be. Here’s the front (left) and reverse (right). Any thoughts please, wise yarn-lovers?
I’d love to oblige him by making one, especially as I fear we’re reaching the end of the Mum-is-cool years, and fast approaching the Mum-is-the-most-embarrassing-human-alive years of the boys’ childhood.
The sun is out, but it somehow feels like autumn-in-waiting, this final week before the schools go back. The flowers are throwing out a final bloom or two, and sun-loving insects are having a last buzz round the garden before the temperature drops. The twinnage are on the lawn pretending to be rival mongooses (mongeese?), some dragonflies are brawling in the airspace above the pond, but change is definitely in the air, and nature knows it. (By the way, Juniper the young blackbird has been around again, but not when I’ve had a camera in my hand.)
There’s been knitting, of course. I’m conscious that I’m showing you glimpses of things without telling you much or providing the patterns as yet. There are new designs and patterns coming, quite a few of them, but at the risk of sounding like, well, a blogger, I can’t say much just now. (I know, I know. I’m rolling my eyes at me, too.)
Designing is an adventure in possibilities, but there are days – so many days – that end with considerably less than knitting than I had at the start. I get carried away by some over-complicated ambitious idea, then fall back to earth with a bump when I realize that it won’t work because those little fancy stitches will mess up the gauge, or you can see the floats through those yarnover holes, or that skirts don’t actually have sleeves. *sigh*
When it goes well and your vision becomes a better-than-you’d-dared-hope reality, it’s the best feeling. (Well, maybe the second best feeling. The very best feeling is when the twinnage turn their clothes the right way round before putting them in the laundry basket without being asked, but that’s a scenario that exists more in my imagination than in life, so we should probably ignore it.)
It’s taken a long ol’ time to learn that stopping and ripping back isn’t failure; it’s an inevitable part of the design process that brings a worthwhile finished creation one step closer. And these days, when I tell myself that fact, I’m able to believe it at least 43.6% of the time.
That said, I’d still quite like to stamp my feet and complain about the unfairness of it all, and have a good SULK (because that’ll sort the problem out, right?)
But at least the sun is shining – albeit a little more weakly than before – the garden is blooming, and on some days, there’s a definite net gain in the quantity of knitting produced. 🙂
Happy yarnery, my fine, fibrous, friends.
Phil x
Could it be it’s crocheted in the knit stitch? My work looks exactly like that. https://makeanddocrew.com/how-to-crochet-the-knit-stitch-video-tutorial Trow it away if it’s not allowed, I am sorry for that. Autumn really is in the air but the temperatures are so summer like here. Love that kitchener stitch. I’ve to admit my sons only wear things until 10 years old. After that it was stupid mom’s stuff. My 26 year old uses my work finally so it will re establish.
Ah, interesting. Thank you. Am off to have a look…
Hi Phil
I completely get the §^>}~…@&£ Kitchener Stitch thing.
I use the Very Pink tutorial on her website or YouTube.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dYP_GeHLG0&w=640&h=360]
Hope this is useful
Absolutely no idea about that stitch, the front looks a bit like crochet to me! I’m glad you got managed to get your dots in a line in the end 🙂
Yes, I can see its crochet-ish hints, too. Hmmm…
Are you sure you are not a surgeon in training? Or maybe all surgeons should be taught to knit, and unpick, and reconstruct.
There’s actually an article on this very subject out there somewhere – about how a lack of teaching sewing/knitting skills is not helping a generation of trainee surgeons.
Ah, I will search for it. In the meantime, if you can see this link, you will see part of an amazing exhibition I saw today. Tiny pieces knitted with fine copper wire. Extraordinary, especially the dragonfly and insects. https://www.facebook.com/fgychristchurch/photos/a.653112514850359/1311683162326621/?type=3&theater
Just wow! HOW many hours must have gone in to each piece? I’m in awe. Thank you for posting the link.
I was gobsmacked!
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46019429 found. Hope you have the twinnage started on knitting their own jumpers!
That’s the one. I’d forgotten it was on the BBC. (And whilst the twinnage love making and drawing some things, they’ve so far remained uninterested in either knitting or crochet.)
All in good time!
I hope so.
Looks a lot similar to what a German friend used to make on a large plastic circular loom, she also did sleeves top to bottom , so that she could add on for growth spurts.
Interesting…
I don’t think it is crocheted knit stitch. I looked at the back of some knit stitch I worked and it doesn’t look the same. Also the front was flat, like stocking stitch, not ribbed like your photo. But I’m afraid that doesn’t help identify the stitch!
Maybe it’s some clever new creation that can only be worked on a machine. It’s pretty, though.
Could the stitch be “half fishermans rib”? I hope I’ve translated it correctly from the dutch “halve patentsteek” which is literally “half brioche”.
Maybe it is what I know as fisherman’s rib?
I thought it looked rather like fisherman’s rib too – but inside out.
Me too.
The mystery stitch reminded me of rice stitch, but it’s not… a bit of sleuthing online suggests it might be sand stitch??
I shall henceforth be referring to Autumn as Season 3 of 2019! I love your command of the English language. It is so refreshing to read a well-written intelligent blog that’s not full of typos or grammatical tragedies!
I don’t have a lot of knitterly knowledge, but the photo on the right reminds me of the “shaker knit” sweaters that were very popular in the 1980’s. Lovely post (as usual).
As always I am completely in love…the picture of the dragonfly has me mesmerized – and then there’s all the rest of the stuff…the mention of the brioche rang a bell with me, I’d thought of it at first glance; there seem to be so many ways of doing a brioche stitch. The link to the wire works in New Zealand was enough to make me wish it were not quite so far away from Oregon. Thanks to all for all and good luck finding the stitch – I’m sure you’ll let us know the result of all the hints provided by your adoring fans.
Afraid I can’t help with the knitting identification…I’m still at the stage where I can’t even read my own knitting, let alone anyone else’s. Folks that reverse engineer amaze me (that said, I can do it with beadwork…)
Enjoy those last few Mum-is-cool years; my children are 18 and (almost) 21, and we’re very much past the Mum-is-embarrassing stage and now firmly ensconced in the I’m-way-cooler-than-Mum-ever-was-and-by-the-way-she-knows-absolutely-nothing stage. The other day, when cooking alongside my son, his comment of “You’d NEVER have coped in a student kitchen, Mum” made my hackles rise and the retort of “Don’t assume that the me you know now is the me I’ve always been…” went straight back to him…
Have a good day! Enjoyed reading your post as always
Mmm, looks like the Stockinette Brioche Stitch… ????
http://www.briochestitch.com/archives/stitchvariations/stockinette-brioche-stitch
It looks like fishermans rib to me, Pretty sure I made a sweater out of it years ago
Hello! At first I thought of something that can actually be made only on special industrial machines (“Wirkmaschine” in opposition to “Strickmaschine”) with a completely different way of making loops. In Germany it ist known (only by specialists) as “Charmeuse”; in the English-speaking part this is “locknit”.
But Palma’s suggestion of stockinette brioche stitch makes me feel very confident that you can produce those sweaters with this kind of knitting.
Thanks to Palma for this (I am interested as well in such stuff) – and good luck to you, Phil, starting a new generation of sweaters!
This is my first ever ‘blog-comment’:-)
According to my brilliant ‘Knit Stitch pattern handbook, Melissa Leapman’ (recommended) it’s a tweed rib.
(multiple of 2 stitches + 1) …always slip stitches purlwise
Foundation row: (WS) K1 *p1 k1; repeat from * across
Row 1(RS) *P1, slip the next stitch with yarn in front; repeat from the * across ending with p1
Row 2: K1, *p1, k1; repeat from * across
Repeat rows 1 & 2 for the pattern.
Happy stitchery, hope it’s similar.
PS your blog continues to be a highlight of my mail, thankyou!
The knitting kinda reminded me of a jumper Mum had in what she called Fisherman’s Knit Rib, but it could well be Brioche. What do I know? I’ve done neither.
And getting the twinnage to turn their clothes right-sides-out before putting them in the washing basket may be a step too far. I’ve been trying that with my husband of 38+ years, for about that long, but not nagging. His pyjama trousers came out of the wash this morning one leg inside out. As for socks . . .
Try for being content that their dirty clothes actually make it into the washing basket, whichever way out. Cos if they’re approaching the ‘Mum is the most embarrassing human on the planet’ stage, pretty soon they’ll be at the ‘I LIKE everything piled up in my room, a metre deep (at least)’ stage too. Hang in there, it is survivable.
Meanwhile trying very hard not to get garden pond envy!
Don’t know what the stitch is called but it looks like a stitch I worked out to copy a cowl thing I had. See post – https://rainbowjunkiecorner.wordpress.com/a-scarfhat-tube-thingy/ I worked in the round but you can work it flat just need purl stitches as well on alternate rows, Yours looks tighter than mine.
Good luck when you reach the ‘mum is the most embarrassing human being’ phase! Fun times. I remember the first time my son abandonned me in the supermarket when he saw some of his friends because I just wasn’t ‘cool’ to be with! Look forward to seeing more of your knitting in future. The sweater stitch question – I am sure you know more than me, but I think the reverse looks like fisherman’s rib – maybe when it’s done on a machine one side looks very different to another? What do you reckon?
It looks like the Shaker Rib stitch.