April Tip of the Month Reading Pictures

Reading Pictures?

Yup how to identify stitches and combos from an image. This will get you started, the trick is to be able to recognize what stitches and combos look like to a point you can make he pattern in your head. This is a great technique for wanting to make needle knit patterns on the loom but don't want the hassle of literally translating the pattern from needle to loom. So lets get started.

 

This is a pattern above I have never published. It is an Easter Baby Cloche. So lets break down some elements in the photo.

The circle on the lower left is a knit, the upper right is a purl. To figure out stitches count the similar knits or purls beside. To figure the rows count the knits and purls above and below.

This is a cable. If you see stitches crossing each other this is what a cable looks like. For instance you see 3 knit stitches crossing, it is an even cable which means it uses 6 stitches. The cable is crossing towards the right which makes it a right cable cross. This is also a rabbit cable motif, so look for references on these elements.

This is an eyelet, this means you have a combo of decreases, yarn overs, and knitting 2 stitches together. There are a multitude of ways to do this combo and it takes research to know what the combos look like to recreate the particular eyelet look.

This show a 2 piece section here. See how the seed stitch is going a different direction from the garter stitch. This means you either did the brim separate and was sewn on, or worked into the hat part after it was completed.

This is come basic visual, but to get more fluent at this, constantly research, research, research, this gets you more knowledgable about what things look like. This skill is also beneficial taking elements from say one picture and add to elements of another picture to create a completely new pattern. This is what I use often. This is a great skill to have as a designer. So take this start if you are interested to gain your skill in making your own creations through elements you like from an image. Have fun.