I’ve moved this blog!

It is still at gannetdesigns.com, but it’s not being hosted by wordpress.com anymore.

One side effect of this is that there are not going to be email updates for my new blog posts for the foreseeable future: my apologies.

The RSS feed for the new location can be found at https://gannetdesigns.com/feed/ . I hope this helps you keep track of my new posts.

In any case, I hope you’ll come see me there!

Thanks,

Naomi

Greenland: a needlework chart for any craft

A long time ago, I encoded the word Greenland as both lace and a needlework chart as suggested by Ron, a Patreon backer. I didn’t really have a good routine in place for the needlework charts at that time, and had trouble even choosing a chart I thought was best from the possibilities. But now I’ve picked one I like a lot and came up with a layout I think shows it off well.

I don’t know that I’ll do something like this for all of my oldest needlework charts, but here’s a proper chart that has repeat borders in it, written instructions, and also an image showing how the pattern looks when it’s repeated.

I did make one small change in where the chart repeats because it was easy and I like it better.

Candle: a needlework chart for any craft

The random number generator picked Candle from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Kate, one of my Patreon supporters.

I developed a lace stitch pattern for Candle, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

Candle: a lace knitting stitch pattern

The first word I drew from the words suggested on Patreon this month is Candle, suggested by Kate, a Patreon supporter. This one has multiple unusual maneuvers, but it couldn’t be helped. This was the only arrangement of yarnovers based on the word that could be turned into lace I liked. So it’s got a bunny ears yarnover in it, and a (k1, yo, k1) in next stitch, and also both a k1 tbl and its mirror image. The latter was needed because otherwise the yarnover between it and the CDD at the center of the design collapsed and disappeared when I got to the next right side row. I haven’t untangled why. Yet.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make three of these into knitting stitches each month: the second and third (posted on the first day of the next month) are drawn from the collection of new words; the first is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose these, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways. Finally, when I make the chart into lace, I turn the marked squares into yarnovers and work out where to place the corresponding decreases. (I usually make lace; occasionally I make cables instead.) I also made a Candle needlework chart for any craft that uses a square grid for designing.

The stitch patterns are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Tiny Snowflakes: a needlework chart for any craft

When I was looking at my 2015 needlework chart again, I saw an easy way to modify it to make it look like tiny snowflakes. Winter is almost here, and so I thought it was a good time to share it with you.

This is one of the kind of pattern that I’m sure someone else must have come up with already, but it’s still worth sharing because I don’t remember actually seeing it before, and maybe you haven’t either.

Home: a needlework chart for any craft

The random number generator picked Home from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Natasha, one of my Patreon supporters. I like this one because it almost (though not quite) looks like basket work or weaving.

I developed a lace stitch pattern for Home but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

Home: a lace knitting stitch pattern

The word I drew from my word hoard for this stitch pattern is Home, suggested by Natasha, a Patreon supporter.

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make three of these into knitting stitches each month: the second and third (posted on the first day of the next month) are drawn from the collection of new words; the first is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose these, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways. Finally, when I make the chart into lace, I turn the marked squares into yarnovers and work out where to place the corresponding decreases. (I usually make lace; occasionally I make cables instead.) I also made a Home needlework chart for any craft that uses a square grid for designing.

The stitch patterns are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Amber motif, version 2: a needlework chart for any craft

When I was going through the various possibilities for the Amber needlework chart, there was one that didn’t work out as a whole chart but that I really liked. However, the part that I liked best could be pulled out of the larger chart and made into something that was a good needlework chart. This is a variation on the chart I made for Amber motif, version 1; I like them both a lot.

Amber motif, version 1: a needlework chart for any craft

When I was going through the various possibilities for the Amber needlework chart, there was one that didn’t work out as a whole chart but that I really liked. However, the part that I liked best could be pulled out of the larger chart and made into something that’s really nice on its own. Here it is! A friend remarked that it looks kind of like a ring with a jewel set in it, which does seem fitting for amber. (Even if this is no longer an encoded chart.)

I made a variation of the Amber motif chart that also looks good to me.

Amber: a needlework chart for any craft

The random number generator picked Amber from the suggestions for this post, suggested by Kate, one of my Patreon supporters.

I developed a lace stitch pattern for Amber, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)