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Devil in the Details


I haven't gotten nearly as much knitting done lately as I would like. I did, however, finally manage to finish this swatch for an upcoming class. I've been surprised when I teach by how many knitters only know one or two ways to increase. There are so very many, and they each have their own best application. So I've created this swatch which demonstrates 42 different mirrored double-increases in stockinette. I did not include any examples here of hiding the increase behind a cable or traveling stitch, as that would open up another whole area of exploration. I also haven't included on this swatch increasing by knitting with more than one strand at a time, such as using the tail or using the other yarn when doing double knitting or Fair Isle stranded knitting. And I didn't include casting on in the middle of a row, such as with an e-loop, crochet cast-on, knitted-on cast-on, or cable cast-on.

Some of these are quite decorative. I've used yarn overs, knitting directly into the stitch below, knitting into the purl bump of the stitch below, making a new stitch with the running thread between two stitches, and working multiple stitches into the same stitch by knitting & purling, knitting & yarn overs, or twisting stitches. This line of exploration is getting into the technical minutiae of knitting. It can be quite fascinating to see how something does or doesn't behave as you expect.

At some point, I really ought to do the same swatch in garter stitch to see how these change with the stitch pattern.

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