Friday, April 17, 2015

The Border

The border shown on Sandra Jager's chart is easy on socks, knitted in the round. I could ignore it and just use the giraffes on my baby blanket, but I like the border and I like the way it connects to the black rows that give the giraffes their eyes and ears (or horns perhaps). I'm going to use the second method I tried to adapt the chart to working back and forth - I knitted one row in orange, carrying the white yarn at the back, purled back in black and white, then cut the orange yarn and rejoined it for the third row, also carrying the main colour behind.


Just to make things difficult for myself, I decided to extend the border up the sides. I remembered reading about 'vertical stranding', so I looked it up. It's a technique developed by Lorilee Beltman. The details are not given on free websites because, understandably, Lorilee would like you to learn it from her directly. So I'm just doing my own thing, using separate threads for each stitch of the side border. I suspect mine will not be as neat as the real deal, but it works better than using the same yarn as for the motifs.

9 comments:

  1. I'll have to look up vertical stranding. I've not heard of that technique, probably because I don't knit on a regular basis, and I don't often knit with multiple colors. I also need to start swatching. I guess I always worry about running out of yarn, which is silly. I can always undo my swatch if I really need the yarn. Your giraffes look wonderful!

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    1. When you work with handspun, you get used to swatching because it's really the only way to see how the yarn will behave. But I think it's generally a good idea. I'm thinking of it as 'preliminary sketches' before the painting begins.

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  2. Very interesting , Jane ! Hadn't heard of vertical stranding .... will check it out. This may be dumb , but I would normally use 3 sets of colour 'blocks' - one for either edge, & central one for the giraffe. But yes, these would still mean managing so many strands behind :-(
    I'm sure you will share your experiment & experience :-)

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  3. I am sure it will be a wonderful blanket!!! :)

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  4. Lovely giraffes pattern, will look lovely on the blanket.
    Margaret

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  5. Lorilee Beltman absolutely did not create vertical stranding. It is an old Lapland technique and has been taught by Susanna Hansen for many years. It is really simple - you take a strand of yarn about three times the length you think you will need and when you come to the column of stitches you want that color, you use that strand, keeping your main color behind it. There are a few rules as to how you travel up the knitting - how many stitches you can skip or travel, etc. I will look those up tomorrow. Meanwhile, look at Sussana's web site: http://www.oneofsusannas.com/finnishmittensclass.htm

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    1. Thanks very much Teresa, I'm happy to learn more. Lorilee probably didn't claim to have invented it, but she is teaching it. I will have a look at Sussana's website.

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    2. Here is a you tube of Lorilee's technique.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iMjBnP_Whb8

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    3. Teresa, thank you so much for the video link. I went on to watch another video by Lorilee, demonstrating the technique. Neat! And so simple ! And to think she has actually made a tatting double stitch to hold the 'butterfly' in place :-D

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