Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 8

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 8

This blog covers the important part of moving on to a second chart. First take another piece of graph paper and copy on the original chart outer measurements along the top, bottom and both sides.

Pictorial Chart 2

I had marked off blocks of 10 on the first Pictorial Chart.  I decided in order to make my life easier this time I would also mark off the rows of 5 see below.

Pictorial Chart 2 Close Up

Now that I had practically the same dimensions I could now carry on the pattern the question was what was I going to put in it. To be perfectly honest here I am writing out of order and trying to think how to put it so it can be followed. What I was going to put in it was an Owl. However I had drawn this around the same time as I drew the Squirrel so I am back tracking a little.

The steps to adding an Owl were the same as the Squirrel first the rough drawing of an Owl.

Rough Owl

Then the drawing needed to be put on to the graph paper and rounded off.

Owl on Chart Paper

The above picture is where I have taken out the curved edges and altered to straight lines. Now I had to square the picture in order to knit it. Before I show the final version I want to mention something. After I had completed the Squirrel and realised how big it had come out I wanted to and try and scale it down.

Owl and Scaled Down Version

As you can see that the scaled down version on the left just didn’t work so I was forced to use the normal size Owl I had drawn so back to the Second Chart. I matched up the two sets of measurements and copied exactly the last two rows of the First Chart onto the first two rows of the second chart in pencil ( You might want to fold over the top so you could match exactly see below *). Once I was satisfied that the dimensions were correct I then proceeded to colour them in.

First Two Rows Coloured

The next part was to continue the pattern. I started with the outer and inner parts of the trunk of the tree. Once I had drawn a few rows down I began to input the Owl.

Input the Owl

Once the Owl was added to the Chart I could begin to enter more detail. I always do this in pencil and then I can rub out and redraw if needs be. Remember you can always slightly alter the pattern whilst knitting it up too if needed.

Coloured First Five Rows

Continuation of Pattern* 

In the picture above you can see I had folded the top of the Second Chart temporarily in order to see how the pattern flowed. This was prior to the colouring in part. Now I could begin to knit the next part of the pattern.

 ********

Oh dear things not going as hoped. A couple of slip ups which were a combination of tiredness and dropped stitches which was noticed too late was not a good start. Not only that the discrepancy between the square chart and actual knitted effect has not boded well. The outcome has resulted in an elongated Owl and hence I think it looks more pigeon shaped than Owl.

In addition to that I am not entirely happy with the placement of the Owl. Due to the fact that I started this with very little idea what exactly I was doing and it has taken until now to get the feel of the Design I would have preferred the Owl to be much higher in the pattern.

  

Knitted Owl verse Pattern

Position of Owl

The minor slip ups near the head can be covered up when adding the detail. The shape however is a more serious problem. I decided that one way to tackle this was by removing some of the rows of the Owl Design hence making it shorter. In theory that should in turn make it look wider than it is. This in turn should give more room below which again in theory should help make the Owl look less near the ground.

I have discussed this idea with Knitting Guru Eleanor Burke of Knit Nottingham and she thinks that though not ideal it should help – again in theory. So fingers crossed that it will work.  So time to find the eraser and begin altering the Pictorial Chart. Wish me luck.