
I was reading an article called Queen of Diamonds by Irene Krieger in Machine Knitting News magazine August 2002 . I looked at this diamond and thought , that’s too easy so lets do the one design next to it. I could not grasp how to do the design I wanted to do and thought I better try the “easy” diamond design first to see if it would turn on the light bulb in my brain. OMG!!! The article just tells you how she added texture and some of what she did to arrive at the design. She does not give needle set up or what needles go on the front or back bed. I sort of assumed it was done on a standard machine but had to try the passap because I love it. (Did I ever mention that? lol)It took me three times before I finally got it. I think it would take me even longer to write out the instructions !! haha
You start out doing the eyelet transfer on the front bed. When you move L1 needle to L2 on the same bed, you then bring one needle into work on the back bed opposite the hole.(racking handle up) Then knit four rows. On the next row you take the stitches on either side of the first eyelet(L2, R1) on the front bed and put them on the stitch next to them (L2 to L3 and R1 to R2). Then you pull needles on the back bed forward into the empty spaces. You continue until there are nine needles on the back bed. This is the purl area around the middle “knitted” diamond. Then the fun begins!!! While you are moving the end stitches out on the front bed for the big diamond, now you will start the middle diamond by moving those stitches to the front bed! Sound confusing? It was and is. My sample is larger because I went wider with the diamond .(And yes, it was a mistake)
The reason that I like this design is because the rest of the garment would be in knit and that is a lot easier sewing the side seams than if it were the purl side. I probably won’t make anything using this design but did you ever wonder how something was done and just had to try it? I know a lot of you can think outside of the box and could come up with lots of ideas where to use this.
Now, I have to go try the design next to this one that I wanted to start with first and see if I can figure it out after doing this “easy” one. Hah
If enough of you want me to write the instructions on this, I will do it. Just let me know. 🙂