Unexpected Swatches on a Kniterate

Both of these swatches were knitted on a Kniterate. Each was a surprise in its own way. As I see it, unexpected swatches fall into two categories.

Category one - Did I design this?

The first type of surprise swatch is created when I imagine a stitch pattern and carefully enter my knitting sequence into the design application. When I drop the swatch from the machine, I barely recognize it. (By the way, this scenario plays out with punchcards, too.)

This tan 100% wool swatch was my first surprise swatch on the Kniterate. Yes, it’s still tan and it’s still wool! And I see strong evidence of racking and slanted loops, just as I should. My plan, however, was for a lacy openwork stitch pattern. While I’ll sometimes leave a couple needles out of action for this type of swatch, I thought my fine yarn would make the swatch lacy enough without the out of work needles.

I was quite surprised when the swatch came off the machine looking as if it had been magically crocheted. The open spaces are there; they're just a lot smaller than I had envisioned. Previously, I’ve knitted this type of swatch with cotton yarn. This time I used wool and the yarn naturally stretched as I knitted. And then it recovered filling in most of the open space. I love that it looks like half double crochet. But it’s not.

Revealing the knit stitches on the technical face

Category two - I Can Knit This!

My most recent unexpected swatch came out as I had imagined. The surprise was that I was able to knit it at all. Several months ago when asked if jersey inlay was possible on the Kniterate, I said no. Without weaving brushes or loop pressers I couldn't imagine an automatic inlay.

One day while not knitting, it occurred to me how to use separate traverses to lay in the yarn. I set up with a row of the backing yarn. The sequence begins with a pass of the inlay yarn tucking on the same bed that knits the backing, while using the opposite bed of needles to temporarily hold loops of the inlay yarn. The next row of backing yarn is knitted to lock in the inlay yarn. The last carriage pass in the sequence drops the temporary loops from the needles on the opposite bed creating the weaving effect.

It’s so obvious to me now that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this method is used regularly for inlay with machines that lack the special apparatus for inlay. I just never heard of it.

With my first attempt below, the stitch size on the backing was a little too small. The dropped loops created almost a pile texture.

First attempt at jersey inlay on the Kniterate

The second attempt, below with stripes and a larger stitch size for the backing, was better.

Striped jersey inlay. No weaving brushes were used to knit this swatch.

I see lots of possibilities. Mixing fibers or using something more complex than a 1x1 pattern are just two of them.

O!

As a Kniterate ambassador I’d be happy to give you a virtual tour of the machine. If you’re a Kniterate owner, you may be interested in my prerecorded Designing with Kniterate classes.