TUTORIAL: graphic charts for INTARSIA

I'm into making cushins for the couch. I've worked out these images in photoshop and made a graphic knitting chart. It's supposed to be worked in intarsia. The idea is to have the couch crowded with people in the end...



Guess who it is? I called the first "Beachboy" and the second one "The Woman in Red". Or I might make me a felted bag/tote out of it! Want to see which pics I worked it out from? Here and here it is!




Learn how to chart
Knitpro (translates digital images into knit)
Intarsia

The Knitpro provides a chart with square stitches. In that way you will end up with a squeezed image in the end, since the gauge is never 1 to 1. What you need to do (following the description on Knitty) in Photoshop is:

1) (image/Pixel Aspect Ratio/Custom) Change the Factor. Measure on your test swatch what gauge you have on 10x10cm. For example: 21 stitches on 32 rows has a Factor 32/21=1,523
You will now have a squeezed image.

2) correct the image (image/image size). Uncheck"Constrain proportion". In "Pixel Dimention" select "percent". Leave the Width at 100% and change the Height to 152,3%. The image will now be square again.

3) follow the description on Knitty.

If you make a closeup you'll see that the pixels aren't square anymore but rectangular. In this way you will have a "What You See Is What You Get Chart". If you want to save it as a jpg you will need to put the pixels back to square and change the width to 152,3% (otherwise photoshop will automatically save it with square pixels end you will have a long-faced image.

Felted Crassula Scarf

So this is the final result after felting the Crassula Scarf. It shrunk much more than prevented! It's now 18x160cm. So it shrunk more than 50%. I had it wash two times in the washer, but I think I shoud've controlled it during the last cycle 'cause it got too felted. Very thick but still very soft and cozy. I knit up another Rib Beret to go with it too. Right know it's on a plane heading for Rome. It's going to be a Christmas gift from my brother to Anna (he made an order after seing the Rib Beret for Isolde). Putting concrete marbles into the scarf wasn't a good idea. They were shiny before, but turned dull after the washing, leaving a little bit of colour in the cavity... So the next time I'll use only glass marbles.

CRASSULA SCARF

Her it is, the prefelted shibori scarf. I cast on 100 stitches and worked them for 800 rows. I got a 40x270cm long scarf. After tieing in the marbles it got much shorter. I used marbles of different sizes to get i more interesting. I put them so they would be closer at the extremity, and not so many at the neckpart. It took quite a lot of work. The knitting was fast 'cause I knitted it on my knitting machine. But the tying part took really a lot of time. Axel is worried for his marbles taking a tour in the washer. Special marbles I got for him in Barcellona.



Well, here it is around my neck. I'm posing beside my jade plant and it gave me the inspiration of giving this scarf the name Crassula, that is my favourite plant.

There are a lot of patterns of bobbles scarfs that are very nice.

Badonkadonk
Bobbliscous
Boobie Scarf
Bobbles Felted Scarf

Shibori Felting

I thought of giving Shibori felting a try... I knit a 10 cm square (gauge 24x30) in pure 100% alpaca (Drops alpaca n. 7238).

Then I tied some marbles in it, and it became smaller right away.

After a cycle in the washing machine (40°C) it felted quite well, and it shrunk to a 5cm square. I took the marbles out and voilà. It turned out very soft but much more compact (due to the felting). More about felting you can find here. So now I'm ready for a long scarf... I think felted alpaca is perfect for a scarf. You wouldn't like to have something itchy againt your neck, would you?!

Others that have tried...
She Who Knits
Fusionknitting
Shibori felted scarf