Knitting Randomly

Random Lessons, Part 2

My first lesson randomness occurred at the Great Sand Dunes.

My second lesson occurred a few years later when I found "Glorious Knits" by Kaffe Fassett. This was in the late 1980's.

I fell in love with the Toothed Stripe Waistcoat and decided that I had to make one, even though I could barely knit.

Both the colors and the teeth are stitched randomly. A small section of the pattern is charted with some advice on how to keep stitching the design without using the chart.

Unike walking randomly, which I found impossible, I found knitting randomly to be easy. After I had decided the colors for one section, I could think about the next section. I would have time to change my mind a few times before I had to make another decision. It turned out that I didn't need a chart.

It was great fun to knit the sweater. I enjoyed using many bright yarns and watching them come together to form a pattern. In fact, this project spoiled knitting for me for a long time. Anything else I started quickly became boring. I finished one other sweater and started several others. I'm just now re-discovering the abandoned bags of yarn and needles with a few inches of knitting.

However, the lessons learned on how to be random were remembered and used again and again.

To try this yourself all you need is a copy of the book, graph paper and colored pencils (or yarn and knitting needles if you are adventurous).

Comments

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Erica's Stitches

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