Last weekend I took Alasdair Post-Quinn's online "Double-knitting Off the Grid" workshop. While I don't double-knit often, I find it useful in certain circumstances. Alasdair's inventive exploration of the technique is always worthy of my time. Learning something new was a familiar pleasure, one I haven't indulged in much in 2020.
The swatch took a couple hours to knit. Basically, the class was a deep dive into double-knit increases and decreases. The decreases are pretty much the same ones I use in versa lace. In double-knitting those decreases involve two colors not one, but are otherwise the same. Alasdair has an interesting way of working the swap between stitches #2 and #3 in a single decrease. And he has an unusual way of working the lifted increase. Also, I would have misread his charts if I hadn't taken the class.
The off the grid method allows you to create motifs that are more curved and refined, rather than pixelated. The right-side rows are action rows with lots of reversible increases and decreases. The wrong-side rows tend to be rest rows of simply double-knitting while matching colors. As you can see from the swatch, the manipulation of the grid can deform the fabric. When designing, you'll need to figure out how to make this a feature not a bug.
I mention this class also to let you know if you have learned versa lace with
me, then you already have the decreases you need to work off the grid
patterns. And if you take Alasdair's class, then you have what you need to
work versa lace. The overlap sets you up for some fantastic stunt knitting!
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