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Subtleties of Feather & Fan — stockinette & reverse stockinette

If you've read this blog for awhile or taken a class with me, you may know I swatch. It isn't uncommon for me to think of three or four ways to do something. I'll audition each one, evaluating it. By the way, for those of you who wonder why some people connect STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) with STEAM (same letters with the "A" added for arts), it is because the processes are similar. In engineering or science you have ideas. You test them. You evaluate. Did they work? Did something unexpected happen? Why? Can you improve upon it? Did you learn something? The arts are the same way. What happens if I do this? Do I like it? What if I do this other thing instead? Both process involve trial and error, including a willingness to travel dead ends on the way to a more brilliant solution.

I'm thinking about what projects I need to fill out a couple books on versa lace. I was thinking about a Shetland hap. A hap is a quotidian shawl. Usually is it a large square of garter stitch with a deep border, often of feather & fan. Haps also typically come in darker colors, since they are in regular use. And since I was thinking of making a fully reversible hap, I needed to look closely at feather & fan.

The pattern I used was this one.

This is a basic four-row repeat, multiple of 19 stitches. Row 1 is the action row. Rows 2-4 are rest rows. There are 6 yarn overs, 3 right-leaning decreases (k2tog) and 2 left-leaning decreases (ssk). Written out for stockinette, it is
Row 1: k2tog×3, (k1, yo)×6, k1, ssk×3.
Row 2: purl all.
Row 3: knit all.
Row 4: purl all.

With a four-row pattern, there are 16 different ways to work when mixing up knit and purl rows. Fortunately, 8 of the patterns are the mirrors of the other 8.

  1. k k k k  reverses to    2. p p p p
  3. p k k k  reverses to    4. k p p p
  5. k p k k  reverses to    6. p k p p
  7. k k p k  reverses to    8. p p k p
  9. k k k p  reverses to  10. p p p k
11. k p k p  reverses to  12. p k p k
13. k p p k  reverses to  14. p k k p
15. k k p p  reverses to  16. p p k k

I decided to work all of these to see which ones I like best. The swatch was worked in acrylic worsted yarn (Lion Brand Pound of Love) on size 5mm/US 8 needles. The swatch is not blocked, as my experience with acrylic is the only way to block it is to kill or wound it. Sometimes you'll see the fabric pushed off from the scanner. On the other hand, when I closed the scanner lid, I got a white-on-white scan. I worked four multiples across and four repeats vertically. When viewing my photography, look at the center couple of repeats, as the top and bottom can be affected by the variations above and below. I encourage you to knit your own swatch and evaluate for yourself.

For this post, I'll feature versions 1 and 2. These are obvious — one side is stockinette stitch (shows all knits) and the other side is reverse stockinette (shows all purls).

Version 1: stockinette
Row 1: knit in pattern
Row 2: purl all
Row 3: knit all
Row 4: purl all

The decreases are obvious, hence the "feather" part of feather and fan. Interestingly, the stitches between the yarn overs want to push forward, mimicking beads. The edge wants to curl (of course).

Version 2: reverse stockinette
Row 1: purl in pattern
Row 2: knit all
Row 3: purl all
Row 4: knit all

The nubby texture might be okay if the fabric is aggressively blocked open. Overall, the fabric is flat but textured. The decreases show a little as a thicker spot. The stitches that protrude from the stockinette side of the work aren't visible from the reverse stockinette side. If I were to use this as the public side of the work, I'd probably want to work in a fine yarn on a larger-than-normal needle, to produce an open fabric akin to Russian lace.

Tomorrow: What happens when you have a one-row ridge or valley?

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