Variations
This is a digital download (a PDF), not a physical object.
This e-book is available to patrons in the Utter Nonsense and Rampant Nonsense tiers. Members of those tiers will be able to download the book from now through April 30, 2023.
It may be available elsewhere later (though at a higher price than what a patreon membership costs), but it will be exclusive to patrons until then.
I have a hard time knowing when to stop. No really, it gets me in trouble if I’m not careful. It always has.
For instance, a reasonable, prudent person would, upon finishing a lovely little embroidered hat, probably move on to something new. They would probably not find themselves gripped with an inescapable urge to play a bit longer. They would probably not need to know what happened if they tweaked the spacing. They would probably not decide to work it in four colors. Or six. Just to see if they could. They would probably not try shifting bits and pieces of the stitch off to the side or lacing them up. Just for fun.
And they almost certainly would not find themselves eyeing some of the plainer bits of knitting in their lives and daydreaming about adorning them with as many of these variations as possible.
Alas, I do not appear to be either particularly prudent or overly reasonable. For I, thanks to the indulgence of my patrons, have somehow managed to not just do all those things, but to write them down and photograph them such that I can inflict them on others. My only comfort is that quite a few of you seem to share my enthusiasms.
Here’s hoping you find no end of things to adorn!
General information
This 156-page e-book walks you through lots and lots and lots of variations of the lovely little stitch used on Explicate! It includes versions worked with two, four, and six different colors (each in two different spacings), plus offset versions of each of those, a quick primer on duplicate stitch, and some general information on embroidering on your knits.
Skills & scope
If you can thread yarn (or embroidery floss, or ribbon, or whatever else you’d like to stitch with) onto a needle and consistently count rows and columns on knit fabric, you can do this. And I can help with that counting rows and columns bit!
You don’t even have to know how to knit to use this, you can absolutely work these stitches on fabric you didn’t make. The stitches are all delightfully stretchy, so they’re well suited to putting on all sorts of things.
Tools & supplies
All you need is something to embroider on, something to embroider with, and a blunt needle.
You can knit the fabric you embroider on yourself if you’re so inclined, or you can work on existing fabric. I made a lovely little hat to show off the simplest version of the stitch (it’s called Explicate, you’ll catch glimpses of it in some of the pictures). But you can absolutely work any of these stitches on existing knits too. They work on both hand knits and commercial knits, and they look great on things like the sleeve of a sweater or the edge of a scarf.
I like to embroider with yarn that’s slightly heavier than the yarn used to make the fabric I’m working on, and with yarn that can be washed the same way the thing I’m stitching on is washed. But there’s tremendous room for variation here, and you can absolutely experiment and see what you like best.
This is a fantastic way to use up tiny scraps of yarn (pieces as short as a yard or two are perfect for this).
You’ll want a blunt needle to stitch with. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy! It just needs to have an eye big enough to use with whatever you’re stitching with, and a tip blunt enough that you can wiggle it between the stitches of your knitted fabric. The one you use for weaving in your ends when you knit is probably perfect!
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