In lower Meherabad, India, there is a blue car in the middle of a field. It used to carry Meher Baba. Now, it’s resting.
This picture was on my ‘to knit’ list for many years. I am happy I finally did it, and it always pleases my heart with it child-like quality.
Here are some of the charts in the book:
These are the first ones, being easy knits:
More landscapes and how to knit the border as you knit along:
These are pictures that were done with the same chart (the chart is for the blue one):
Portraits, show knitting in ‘invisible’ technique using 1 yarn and reverse st.st to create the image, and the advantage of knitting sideways:
Charts about working from drawing:
And adding your own writing:
Special techniques (knitting in quilting & weaving styles):
How to knit a group project (no charts here):
And some heart charts we used in these projects:
I enjoyed knitting them all!
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.
Baba of Rahuri Cabin
July-August 2015
In Rahuri cabin there is a beautiful painting of Baba, done by Rano Gayly to Baba’s specifications:
1. The image was to be of Baba sitting, dressed in a sadra.
2. The painting was to be done on a piece of plywood which was already painted with a painting Baba did not like.
Rano said the value of the painting is in how it was used by Baba: He brought it a few times to old Mandali Hall at lower Meherabad, and before the New life He had the men mandali say prayers of different religions before it and He bowed down to Himself in it.
I loved going to Rahuri cabin and once, just as I was leaving, Baba asked me to knit this picture for Him, and I made a promise.
The picture is 20×27″, knitted in weaving style.
This is the first version of ‘Elfy Game’, to go with the story ‘The mushroom under the Elf’.
Size: 28″ X 37″
To play: go down on a mushroom leg, up on a head and up on a sun ray, + some rules to be added by the kid for extra fun (like fuzzy squares and white dots).
Apart for plating it with Hubby (every night before bed as the game was progressing) I played it with 2 nine years old – first on a table, then they drugged me for another game on the floor + wanted another one! One of them read the story aloud before we played – still needs work + a lot of photos before it’s done… crawling my way on it, wish it went faster (as in waiving my magic wand and Ta Da – it’s done! 🙂
The second version of the knit game is done already, and hope to post it soon.
The idea of making a modular picture always fascinates me. Does it really work?
My first attempt was the tree picture. It’s partially modular and you can read more about it here (scroll down): http://www.pictureknitting.com/gator_lake.html
It’s hard to see but the right part of the soil is knitted upward while the trees etc are knitted sideways, with the idea of taking advantage of variegating yarns in different directions. By the time I started knitting I forgot it and just picked the yarn I fancied… It’s modular in knitting 2 directions in the same piece, but does not have inc/dec(so it’s not a real module).
This is my second modular attempt. I used a small chart I had for a picture knitting class and lots of little left over yarns (I belong to the group that can not throw even itsy bitsy piece of yarn). Still needs work, but it was so much fun to knit and totally impossible to tell what’s going on until the very end.
Well, one day I’ll learn how to put the photos side by side, for now – this will have to do. These are my last 3 pictures, and maybe because of not being able to knit as much as I like, I appreciate them more (usually I don’t like my pictures so much in the beginning).
Hope you’ll enjoy them too… Read more about them in my website: The top picture is here
The middle one (my lily pond) here
and last, the everything/nothing piece here. I love looking at this piece from all 4 directions, so it has 4 hangers on the back and can hang any which way.
The charts for the water-lilies and the Nothing/Everything are in my knitting books.
This blanket has been in the planing for a while. Then the Baby’s Mom called to say the shower will be in the end of that week and I started knitting as fast as I could, finishing one hour before the shower…
The blanket is double knitted, see the other side below. Originally I planned to make it into a pattern, but it will need a lot of polishing before I can do that, and I think I will just leave it at that. The name ‘Sunburst’ was given by the Baby’s aunt, and I like it a lot.
Now, that I spend time happily writing the baby blanket patterns, I needed a way to give some estimate of how much yarn is needed. While usually, for me and for my friends, I just wave my hands in the air and say ‘just use what you have’, here I need to be more specific.
Since my charts are in chunks of 5 sts and 5 rows (as oppose to 8 base grids), here is the way I do it:
1. knit 25 sts. Undo and measure the length in yards or meters.
2. Count how many squares of 5×5 of that particular color/yarn are in the chart.
3. Multiply the length by the number of squares you need, and – voila! you have an estimate!
Hope this helps!
The theme of simplicity ans child like naivety is continuing in my art, and strongly. Recently I am working on baby blankets, and there are so many patterns I want to do, that I don’t want to take the time out to sleep or eat (or refine the instructions so I can put them up). They are so simple to do, that I truly hope some beginners will try them too.
Another amazing thing about these patterns is that the same chart can be made into a Baby blanket (top picture, 30″x32″, needles #15US/9mm ), or a stroller blanket (see pastel version, 20″x23″, needles #7US).
There is something about Baby blankets that just tugs on the heart strings. They are like prayers shawls – as we put our best wishes in for the baby, and take so much care that the yarn will be soft and that there will be no knots in it.
This pattern is now available on etsy http://www.etsy.com/listing/97513843/you-are-my-sunshine-pdf-pattern-for-baby and on ravelry.
Picture Knitting 
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