Stitch Patterns Making Me Batty

Alternate Title: What Happens To My Brain When I Knit Stockinette for Too Many Days in A Row

My all time favorite knitting books are the four stitch treasuries by Barbara G. Walker. I can spend hours looking through them. They overstimulate my mind. Everytime I pick one up, I find something new I've never noticed before and/or get an idea for knitting that was never obvious before.

I judge knitwear design by the stitch patterns used. If a design has boring, ordinary stitch patterns, I'm not going to knit it. (There have been exceptions to this rule, but I'm always bored and sorry when I break it - like now, trying to complete the endless Lavold sleeves.)

Shortly after I started knitting again and before I learned the beauty of wool, I knit this sweater for myself. (It was also before I lost 40 pounds.)

If I recall correctly, the yarn is Paton's Look At Me.

Starting at the bottom, I worked a stitch pattern until I was tired of knitting it. Then, I went to the stitch treasuries and found a new stitch pattern that I though would look good on top of the one I just finished.

Looking back, I have to note that this sweater was more fun to knit than anything else I've ever done. (Notice, I didn't say I wear it often, just that it was fun to knit.)


I've always wanted to knit the Spider in Barbara G. Walker's Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It's a complex twist stitch pattern 29 stitches wide by 52 rows long. She uses The Spider as a tutorial in twist stitches.

There are right twists, left twists, right side twists, wrong side twists, knit twists, and purl twists. What fun!

The spider is ugly. It looks like a spider, and I think the time has come I do need to master it.

Maybe on a seaman's scarf? For Halloween?

The problem is, I don't want to knit the spider twice. Now what would work on the other flap?

Bats!

In the same book Barbara Walker charts out bat lace.

What could be more perfect?