Keeping Warm in a Cold Climate:
Komi inspired designs by Helen Darmara
A motif from Komi Patterned Knitting
Several years ago, I sent a pattern correction to a publisher. Two days later, they emailed me to offer me a choice of books from their list! I chose Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens, a book about the traditional knitting of the Komi people of Russia. When the Camden Conference selected "Russia Resurgent" as the 2015 topic, I suggested to one of the organizers of our community events that I offer a workshop on this knitting style. I picked one motif from Komi Patterned Kniting (Uzornoe vazanie Komi/by Galina Nikolaevna Klimova and charted it. Then I excerpted sections of the chart to include in a hat, a headband, and cuffs. The cuffs can be used as a test swatch for knitting colorwork in the round. One of the benefits of the headband is that it's quite quick knitting. There's no shaping, just ribbing and a section of stranded knitting in the round. The hat is a little more complicated as the crown is shaped with decreases. The hat is cast on at the cuff and worked in the round from cuff to crown. Two colors are used, a third for contrast is optional. The headband and cuffs are also worked in the round, beginning and ending with ribbing.
Tips on Chart Reading
· Charts show what your work looks like from the right (public) side · Read charts for knitting in the round from bottom right on all rounds Mask out the rows above your current row with a sticky note or magn · No stitch in the legend (usually shown as grey in the chart) means just that. There is no stitch in your knitting, so there is no symbol or color in the chart. It's a placeholder showing where stitches were decreased or will be added. · Look at the repeating pattern across the row. Often this will be something like 3,1,3,1. 3 MC, 1 CC. Or 3 CC, 1 MC. In one of the patterns for the headband, it's 3 CC, 2 MC, 1 CC, 2 MC. Alternating 3 and 1 groups, separated by 2 stitches of the background color. · Technitter has a very interesting technique to help analyze chart patterns. She calls it "charting the chart". Read about it here: http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/06/ charting-charts-new-way-to-keep-track.html
Suggestions for the Impatient
Take advantage of the symmetry of knitting - you can pick up stitches in stockinette or garter and work in the opposite direction. The point at which you changed direction will be undetectable. This has the benefit of getting you to the interesting color work part immediately. It also lets you decide after the fact whether you want ribbing, a garter stitch band or a turned hem. In many cases, it is almost as fast to knit a few inches of the actual pattern as it is to knit a large swatch. . Use a provisional cast on, knit 1 round of the color you think you will use for the ribbing or hem. Use the stitch count required for the chart. . Start the color work immediately. · When you have finished and bound off the upper edge, go back and pick up the stitches of row 1. · Work downward in ribbing or · Purl one round, switch to one size smaller needle and knit about one and a half inches for a hem. · Either sew each live stitch down to the inside of the piece or bind off and then sew bind off edge loosely to inside.
