May 2011

In my Ask Jeanette pages in June’s issue of Knitting magazine I was asked by a reader for help in finding a company or a clever piece of software that could help her to translate a picture into a chart that she could use for intarsia knitting. As knitters, some of us love working with graphs whilst for others the mere sight of graph paper brings them out in hives. I love working with graphs and my personal design process nearly always begins with ideas drawn in pencil on hard copy graph paper. A bit old school I know but it works for me. Once I’ve swatched the design a few times and I’m happy with it, I then translate it into the brilliant Intwined to create the digital graphs and the written instructions.

If you’re looking to create your own charts for knitting and you’d like a little help there are several options available on the net and I’ve put links to some of them on the Ask Jeanette page of the blog here. Some are free to use, some you’ll have to pay for and they vary in terms of how simple they are to use. As I haven’t worked with any of them I’m not recommending one more than the other but I think exploring them further and then reporting back would make an interesting blog post in the future. Let me know if you think that would be helpful.

It’s definitely been one of those weeks where almost every day I’ve planned to sit and do nothing but knit from the get go and what actually happened is that I’ve spent much of the day answering emails. Now I find myself sitting on Friday evening trying to frantically finish knitting a design that should have been finished 2 days ago. BUT this week has seen a little more dwindling of the stash pile. There is however still more yarn that needs to be sold so if you’re in the mood for a bargain then have a look here. I’ve currently got 33 lots up for sale including some Artesano Hummingbird 4ply, Rowan Wool Cotton, Kidsilk Haze and Trendsetter Handspun Cashmere.