Lily-Silly, pattern for knitted picture

I can not resist Water Lilies. I am totally infatuated with them. When my husband and I go to Brookgreen gardens, he can have the camera for forever – until we get to the Lily pond. There, the camera is all mine. They are spectacular.

This chart however is based on Water Lilies at Long Lake, Meher Spiritual Center, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

If it seems complicated – it isn’t. Most people who tested it finished their picture in 4 days (unless they started unraveling – big no-no!), and immediately started another one.

Here is my last version of it, with embroidery to enhance the Lilies:

Knit level: knit in st.st with mixture of carrying yarn & using it locally (stranding & intarsia).

Pattern includes: chart, knitting-aid notes, how to fix mistakes, and how to mount/hang the picture. (embroidery instructions are not included – get creative and show me what YOU can do!).

Pattern is available in my Etsy shop: LittleBabas

and on Ravelry: PictureKnitting

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The Blue Lake Knitting Pattern

New Pattern!

The Blue Lake is an easy way to start knitting pictures.

It is very easy to knit, and makes a great gift.

Pattern is available here.

The chart is 50 sts and 36 rows, about 4 hours knit-time.

Use yarn & needles of your choice, as gauge is not crucial.
Thin-med weight yarns are the best (sock-worsted).
In general, big needles & thick yarn = big picture, and small needles and sock yarn = small picture.

The needles should match your yarn weight (see suggestion on your yarn cover).

Knitted in st.st with mixture of stranding & intarsia. Do not let these words intimidate you. Use common sense, make all possible mistakes, and fix them later (how to enclosed).
If you need any help, or not sure about anything, just contact me.

Yarns: very little yarn of each color, and if you run out – improvise!
You can substitute yarn, or change the pattern.
Do the same when you make a mistake: instead of unraveling, change the pattern (if possible) to suit what you did.
Do not hesitate to mix different kind of yarns. The yarns need to be similar in thickness/weight, but do not need to be of the same kind.

Water: self striping yarn, sparkly, or solid color yarn.
Optional: knit a band of a slightly different color in the middle.

Mountains/trees: Use 5 different yarns, or alternate colors to use what you have. Use browns, greens, or any color you like. If you run out, make the mountain shorter.

Sky: Self striping or solid. Add more rows at the top if you need, to fit better into a frame size.

Clouds: are optional too. I like using whites, but what would YOU like to do?

Pattern includes:
Love
Chart
Light written instructions to support the chart
Explanation about the difference between mounting and using a frame, to using a dowel
How to mount the pictures
Light instructions for using a dowel.

Read before you print. The instructions have a lot of full color photos. The only thing to print is the chart page.

I wish you luck, I hope you will enjoy it and make millions of them to give everybody you know.

Reflections

Though it’s hard to see, these are 2 sides of the same knitting. The one on the left is finished and used here as a curtain, the one on the right was taken earlier, before finishing and weaving-in the tails. It’s a picture I knitted years ago, and now testing it for a pattern.

The pattern started from paper cuts images (top right), and then I made their reflection (top left). The picture can be held 4 ways: The 2 above + their up-side down.

I used to think this pattern is very easy, and was going to include it in the book (Color & Picture Knitting). At that point though I realized it was tricky and was not sure I even knew how to redo it.  And that’s what I think now, it is both very easy & complex at the same time.

To knit it, start upside down (knitting upward) in st.st. To do the reflection, move to reverse st. So now reading the rows knit=reading the chart from left to right (I think…) and vise versa, and knitting the images upward. Knitting it is easier than talking about it because the colors helps keeping it right (only of course I was working on B&W chart).

 

Below, the original picture:

Reflections

 

‘Color & Picture Knitting’ book

 

Dear Tracy,

I can not find your comment, so will answer you here, as other people asked about the book too.

The book is a work book. It explains how to knit pictures, from easy ones to more involved. The patterns in it are like exercises. They are meant for you to knit them and hopefully hang them on your wall or give as gifts.

You may not sell my patterns, but you may do many pictures using the charts in the book, and even sell the pictures you knitted yourself.

I am saying that the charts are exercises because my purpose was to give you enough information so that you can continue to make your own charts and do your own pictures.

So, to sum it up, the patterns in the book are for you to knit in order to learn the techniques used.

After the picture is knitted and BO, you can block it. For this you will need to stretch it upside down on foam board or anything else handy, spray lightly with water and let dry for 24 hours. Because of spraying it with water, you need to use stainless steel pins. You can buy them in a sewing store.

Some people prefer ironing their knits, I do not.

After the picture is well dry, you can attach it to foam board that is cut to fit the size of the picture. For this you can use straight pins (they do not have to be stainless steel).

Some people glue the picture instead of using pins, I do not.

See next blog post for detailed account of the charts in the book.

The book is available on Amazon.com

Good Luck, hope you’ll enjoy it, and feel free to ask questions.

 

How to knit pictures, again…

Here is again about how to knit pictures: without fear and with much fun!

Attitudes: 

1. Use common sense as oppose to relying on instructions along. Sometimes looking at your knitting makes it easier to figure out what to do.

2. Adopt attitude of ‘no biggy’.

3. Instead of thinking you made a horrid mistake, call it a new design element. See – didn’t it get pretty immediately?

I just go on knitting.

Technically: all I do is knit and purl. Adding/ending/carrying yarn is done by weaving-in the extra yarn (or yarn tail) as I knit along.

Adding a new yarn: knot it to the old yarn, or weave it in 7-9 sts before you need it (so it is ready and secure in place).

switching yarns: stick the needle into your next st, hold the new yarn ready to use. Now place the old yarn in between the needles and the new yarn, so that when you knit, the new yarn will ‘hug’ the old yarn in place (‘sandwich’ it). Inserting the needle first into the next st will save you from a lot of trouble.

Weaving-in the other yarn: same as switching yarns. Stick the needle into the next st and place the unused yarn in between the needles and the working yarn. Note: I alternate between moving the yarn upward (right photo) and down (left photo) but that’s not a must.

Just think of hugging. Make sure the unused yarn/tail is being hugged-in by the working yarn. That’s it.