Swatch-a-thon

 It's been a while again.

A design I proposed was accepted by CastOn magazine and will be published in a few weeks. It took me ALL THE TIME to knit and write the pattern. When I turned it in I was a bit cross-eyed with the effort but I'm glad I did it.

I was not going to propose another design as my husband and I planned to take a holiday and there is a wedding to attend in September. Then, he fell out of the attic and broke his tibia. So, no holiday, but maybe we will still do the wedding. 

So, I put in a proposal for another sweater design. I hope they like it. 

In any event, after I turned in the pattern and sample I did not feel like going back to any of my in-progress projects. Actually, I did not feel like knitting at all for a few days. For me, that is really weird. Then, suddenly, I needed to swatch. I was looking for a diamond pattern that would be suitable for beaded embellishment. I ended up down a quilting/floating stitch rabbit hole. Then, there was one very special discovery - the kind of pattern I live for. 

Let's see what what I did, and what I think about it

This first one is Quilted Lattice from Barbara Walkers first Treasury. My opinion is that it looks better in the photograph than in person. It is really easy, and I could place beads on the floats, but it could weigh them down. That could be good to. It just wasn't what I was looking for exactly.

The very next pattern in the book is the English Diamond Quilting pattern. It is closer to what I was looking for but I don't see an easy way to mount beads. It uses two yo stitches to add yarn for the elongated stitches. It seemed a bit confusing and the stitches seemed sloppy. I could try again with some intentional adjustments to the tension, but I saw how this one works and was ready to move on.

The next turned into a multi-swatch. Starting on the bottom is a modification of the quilted lattice. Instead of offsetting the pattern I just worked the first two rows. It's OK, but I was looking for something a bit more dense. I should probably work it again with beads on the floats and in sport weight yarn. It could make a nice beaded border for a tank or shell. 

Next up is Cluster Quilting from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury.  I do love a two tone pattern and this one has potential. It is worked differently from the English Diamond by using a purl wrapping twice instead of a yo to make the elongated stitches. It also uses a double wrap to sort of hide the intersection of the diamonds. It looks neater in the Walker book. Perhaps, another go, intentionally tightening up those wraps would produce a neater result. That wrapped row is five stitches of the foreground pattern so that one only slips three background stitches. It's pretty clever, as the first and fifth stitches are sort of covered up by the diagonal elongated stitch.

Next up is Cornflower pattern again from the Second Treasury. This one surprised me. I thought it would be too cute, but I actually like it a lot. I can see combining it with some other leaf type motifs for a flower themed texture piece. The little buds could be  arranged to play in a more vertical panel than the spread-out horizontal as written. I could mount a bead on that top center elongated stitch, but that may not add to the pattern effect. It is a bit fussy with a lot of slipping back and forth, but I think it is worth it. 

The top one blew me away. It is also in the Second Treasury and is called Two-tone Lattice. It is effectively a brick type slip stitch with one WS knit row. The RS purl bumps from that row make the diagonal lattice. This is what I love about some knitting patterns. It produces an attractive and complex effect with a very simple and easy to remember pattern.

So, we come to the end of my sharing. Send some comments this way if anyone is reading.