It's not as hard as it looks: Tips on knitting Mary Thomas's patterns

I always take my knitting with me wherever I go. I get a lot of knitting done on trains and in coffee shops between other scheduled events. Especially in the summer when it's flippin' hot and I look at sitting in coffee shops as renting air conditioning. 

As I've been knitting my swatches a number of people have told me--from beginner knitters and non-knitters alike--that what I'm doing looks hard, and they couldn't do it. That the swatches I've been working on look so complicated. But they aren't! 

I guess my point in making this blog is a service to myself as much as it is to my readers, imaginary as they now seem to be. (By the way, if you're reading this, thanks! Please come back again! And if you'd like to keep up with me, please press the button over there -->. You know, the one on the right that says "follow". It'd mean a lot!) I haven't been including the patterns in the book, because, well, Dover might get pretty mad at me. And the book is pretty cheap, only $14.95. So if you like some of the patterns, or see something interesting to do with them, that's great! I think from now on, I'll try to include a difficulty rating with the patterns, so maybe it'll help encourage people to try it themselves.

So far, the book hasn't been so difficult to follow. Mary Thomas's explanation about double knitting was pretty difficult to understand (so I skipped it, but I'll be coming back to it.) I have to be honest, I had to go off to YouTube and watch a few double knitting tutorials before I could go back to Mary Thomas and understand her directions. Which, I have to admit, isn't really very instructive on her part. Too bad readers in 1943 didn't have the internet and YouTube at their disposal! 

I would say, having become pretty acquainted so far with Mrs. Thomas's way of explaining things, she does take a lot for granted. First of all, I'd hazard to say that she most likely looked at this book as the more advanced sequel to her first book Mary Thomas's Knitting Book, in which she teaches the basics of knitting. That's where I learned how to make a ball of yarn that pulls from the inside. She definitely leaves some things unexplained, and takes for granted that knitters have a lot of their own schemata to draw from.

I should also say that I'm a chart reader more than a notation reader. I knit backwards. I taught myself how to knit many years ago out of another book (before YouTube, alas!) and managed, being a left-hander, to botch it all up. So I knit left-handed. Which means that if I follow knitting notations, I read everything backwards, or I swap stitches. So if a pattern says to k2tog, I generally ssk. It's pretty funky. So I discovered if I read charts from left to right, I get the same results with a lot less effort. My point is, I haven't been very attentive to her written patterns. 

What I can say, though, is watch out for her charts. She's say in the directions that the pattern has, for example, a 12 stitch repeat that is 8 rows tall. Mrs. Thomas's charts are often made to visually represent the patterns, so she doesn't mark the repeats, and they don't always correspond to the number of stitches you'd expect. For instance, in a pattern that is 8 rows tall, you'd expect the chart to be 8 rows tall, or maybe 16. But sometimes, Mrs. Thomas's charts are like 20 rows tall. So, if you're following a chart and want to repeat it, when you get to the top of the chart, you can't go back to the bottom and start again. I'd get out your red pen and draw a box around your pattern repeat. It makes it easier.

Anyway, it's not rocket science. And hopefully my pictures will inform and inspire you. I hope it creates a nice visual representation of her patterns. 

I've been doodling a lot of potential patterns for the future lately. I'm really excited about that. Maybe I'll show you one of these days. I need to study more about pattern construction and sizing. I have no problem taking my own measurements and doing the math to make a pattern for myself, but to produce a pattern means I need to understand how sizing works for a variety of people. When I've mastered that, or at least feel more confident, I would really like to start producing my own. I have some pretty fun ideas!  

Chapter Two: Broken Ribbing

Hi there!

Nice to see you.

Shall we talk about knitting? We haven't done that in a while...

In Chapter 2, after her explanation of stocking stitch, Mary Thomas talks about ribbing. I've skipped the bulk of that part of the chapter, mainly because I think it's pretty safe to say that anyone who knows how to knit and purl will most definitely bump into ribbing pretty quickly. So I didn't feel that it was necessary to swatch things like 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, and 5x5 ribs (the "Even Ribs") and 1x2, 3x2, and 5x3 ribs (the "Uneven Ribs"). She concludes this section with the Knife Pleating, which I've already talked about, which is perhaps one of the coolest ribs I've ever seen. I hope you agree.

The last part of her section on ribbing is Broken Ribbing. She gives a couple of patterns and some variations of those patterns.

A broken rib is basically when you knit a ribbed fabric for a number of rows and then switch the placement of the knits and purls.

The first example Mrs. Thomas gives us is the One and One Broken Rib (p. 14) in which you (k1,p1) for four rows, and then (p1,k1) for four rows, and repeat. 

Of course, you can break a rib of any width, like a 2x2 rib, but Mrs. Thomas advises increasing the number of rows between breaks. So for the 2x2 rib, you would (k2,p2) for 6 rows before you (p2,k2). But the concept is quite the same, and interestingly, creates a much different looking fabric. 

I cheated a little bit on this swatch, and knit all the broken ribs together. What I especially like about the 2x2 broken rib (the one in the middle of the swatch) is that it has a lot of dimension. It creates fabric that is almost bumpy, but without the extra pain of making bobbles or nupps, and not as pronounced. And, of course, it's got quite a lot of elasticity.

As I mentioned, Mrs. Thomas offers a couple of variations of broken ribbing, too.

The variation she includes with the One and One Broken Rib is called the Macaroni Rib. I love patterns with funky names. Just that alone made me want to knit it up. It's basically the 1x1 broken rib broken up with a couple of rows of stockinette at each break. Personally, I like the variation better than the original, one of the main reasons being the variation creates the illusion of horizontal lines, as the stockinette rows sink a bit, allowing the "macaroni" to pop up more. It has a lot more visual interest than the 1x1 broken rib, and looks cleaner to me. If that makes sense.

And of course, these are all double sided fabrics--always a plus! 

You can really see the differences in texture in this shot:

The macaroni rib is on the bottom here (I accidentally flipped the swatch), but you can really see how there is a clear horizonal movement between each rib. 

I think it might be fun to use this kind of rib in replacement of a regular one. Perhaps a simple sweater in stockinette with a wide band of this at the hem? Or as a waistline? It might be interesting. The 2x2 broken rib could be a very fun and simple cowl, especially in a chunky yarn on large needles--I am guessing that at a higher gauge, it would really accentuate the "pop" in the texture.

On a completely different note...are any of you fans of Alexi Murdoch? I recently discovered his music and can't stop listening to it. He reminds me a lot of Nick Drake, who I'm also a huge fan of. I just thought I'd mention it...

Until next time!