So many new things I’ve been learning – I’m still wearing my much darned mittens, but it’s worth it – I’ve got a new font for using on a spread sheet instead of a word processor – much easier to select vertical portions – and several fruitful digressions.
I was just going to re-knit the mitten with a different thumb placement and shaping, leaving the leaves and vines alone, but I looked at it again and thought – uh oh, even with the flower in the center, doesn’t it sort of look like a swastica? I asked my friend T, and she said, very diplomatically, "Yeah, it really does." Well, if that doesn’t call for a re-design!
So I went back to the reference book. Originally, the Moghul rug had 8 flowers swirling in the middle of the design, not 4 leaves. If I left the top and bottom leaves, and tried for little flowers, I’d be a lot more comfortable with the design. Back to the Barbara G Walker books. Cornflower pattern in the 2nd treasury looks a lot like the carnations in the Moghul rug, so ‘all’ i had to do was figure out if it worked on a purl ground, and how to rotate and invert it. I did figure out that, but it requires a bit of Kitchener stitch into one stitch to make it perfectly symmetrical – oh, and they needed finer vines, that calls for closed cable designs with one knit stitch. I did figure out a great ‘smile’ curve, but the frown needs some work – tutorials coming soon, because
DH found the camera!
The upside down version does work, but it is a pain, requiring a lot of embroidery, which is awkward to do neatly, for me. The flowers show up much better on a knit ground also.
But the mittens are progressing, and I did find a way to make the frown curve neatly.