Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

for my grandad

A few months ago the wonderful UK knitting magazine Yarn Forward published a series of patterns for mystery blankets squares, 6 each month, which were shown only as charts or written instructions, with no pictures of how the finished squares would look.  I thought this would be a good project for me as the mixture of lace, cables, colourwork, beading and textured squares would mean a lot of variety within the project, allowing the knitter to end up with relatively large finished object without too much boredom.  As each square was to be 8×8″ in size, it was quite easy to see that there was a large scope for making your own aditional squares.  I picked my colour palette (various browns and creams, and a pale turquoise) and cast on for my first squares.

I always like to have a blanket for comfort, so I decided to make this as a treat for myself, but soon my knitting had to be put aside for a while after the death of my beloved grandfather at the age of 97.  I could not knit for a while, because my time knitting is a time when I can afford myself time to think, and to contemplate, and I could not bare to have that quiet reflective time when I was grieving.

When the occasion of the funeral had passed I slowly picked up my needles for time to time and dabbled in a square.  Knitting became a comfort, as I hoped my blanket would be, but the thing I needed comforting from most was the loss my family had recently suffered.

I started to think of how I would like to knit a square in memory of my grandad, and how I would like it to symbolise what I loved about him.  He was my father figure, mentor, teacher and greatest supporter.  When I was young he’d take me anywhere I wanted to go – to the park, to the museum, to ride my bike.  He’d fix the punctures in my tyres as well as the graze on my knee.  One of the thing he’d love to do most was to go out and watch wild birds.  He bought a heavy old pair of binoculars and we’d walk through fields, parks, woodlands – wherever we could find them.  He’d explain about their songs, their migration paths, and we’d sketch them as he whistled their tunes back to them.

One of his favourite British wild birds was the bluetit, and I thought that this would make a fitting tribute to my beautiful grandfather.

I’d already picked out my colour palette for the blanket, so some artistic license had to be taken with the colours, but as my box of crayons was always missing a few colours and we used what we could to make our sketches, I didn’t think he’d mind.

I think he’d have loved this design if he was still alive, but I also think he’d like me to have shared it, because he’d always want more of his feathered friends in the world.

A larger version of the chart can be viewed here.  Extra plain rows can be added to the top or bottom of the chart if you wish to knit it into a square.

Charles James Henry Stiff. 1912-2009. ♥

Below is a picture of the chart of the stylised Christmas tree I designed to knit into Edward’s socks.  There are four sections to the chart; the set up round, the ‘branches’, the ‘tree trunk’ and the ‘ground’  The chart is worked across 12 stitches and can be adapted in height by altering the number of repeats you knit for the branches, trunk and ground.

• Start by knitting round 1 of the chart just once  (this is the set-up round).
• Knit rounds 2-7 as many times as you wish to have layers of branches (I have chosen to do six rounds of branches for the tall trees of Edward’s Socks).
• Knit round eight as many times as you wish until the ‘trunk’ of the tree is the length you desire.
• Knit rows 9-11 three or four times to give an indication of the ground.

click to view in new window

It is worth baring in mind that this chart was designed in the round for the pair of top-down socks that I am knitting, so if you are knitting socks from the toe up, or something else that is knitted from the base upwards, this tree will be upside down. I believe that you may be able to simply turn the chart upside-down and successfully knit it that way, but I haven’t actually tested this so don’t hold me to account if I am mistaken. I’d give it a quick swatch but I only have my needles with the socks on at the moment and no spares, but if anyone gives it a go before I am able to do so myself please drop me a line and I’ll post the results.

Yesterday I posted about a quirky little typeface I found one day and about its uses for design and layouts for knitterly folk, but also the possibility of it perhaps working as a quick and easy way to generate charts for knitted words.

Using the graphic I made yesterday, I managed to knit this (please excuse the untidy sample, I only had 15 minutes to knit this in and it hasn’t been blocked or had its stitches manipulated into submission).

I prefer to call it 'rustic'

I think it is readable and attractive, and due to the relatively equal width/height of the characters and the fact that there are no large blocks of colour, it works very well in stranded knitting. So – if you give an infinite number of knitting needles to an infinite number of monkeys, how long will it take for one of them to knit Hamlet?

A while ago I was wandering merrily through Internetland, watching balls of wool skip happily through the meadows, scampering around the giant cones of yarn, whilst listening to the gentle soothing sound of the needles clicking away in the trees when I stumbled upon Knitfont. I picked myself back up and considered this cute little font for a few minutes. It was a simple idea, but perfectly done, and available in two different forms – knitted letters on a plain background or white letters on a knitted background.

Knitfont has both 'positive' and 'negative' styles

Both quite attractive in themselves, but I think the effect is most pleasing when you use both together. If you have a graphics program that uses layers, such as Photoshop, you can use both versions in different colours to layer one on top of the other to fit them together:

The two styles of knitfont combined

I used this same idea to create the ‘Eskimimi Knits’ graphic at the top of the page, and I think it could come in handy for making gift tags or washing instructions tags for knitted items and in many other applications.

I think the question that begs to be asked is – Can you use it for lettering in colourwork? I haven’t tried it myself, yet, but it’s something I keep meaning to give a go. I do not think that it is the intended purpose of the font – I think it may have been created purely for decorative value, but I think it is worth experimenting with so I’m gong to give it a go. I’ll post the results soon.

‘Knitfont’ by Honey and Death can be downloaded free of charge from here.