Lesson 4

Hello Everyone

Last time, I showed you how with the aid of Paint and PSP working in tandem, you can pattern-fill garment blocks that are drawn on a pixel per stitch/ row basis. I also showed how it is possible to design from fonts and how you can show Passap jacquard stitch distortion on a garment block.

Download the graphics for the lesson here
Note from Roz: I have a link to a page that has complete instructions for using Winzip. Go to my Links Page and look for the link directly under the main links.

In this "lesson" I'd like to do 2 things
1. I want to deal with the problem of pattern filling a garment with 2 or more different patterns. How do we know which patterns we want? (How do you know in Designaknit?) Which will be best and where? Does the sleeve look better in a different pattern or in a modified version of the main one?

2. I would like to introduce the notion of a drawn representation of a human model, man, woman, boy, girl, baby which you "clothe" with the patterned garment you have in mind. The garment of course cannot be an exact copy but it has to be close enough to give a reasonable impression of reality. We are not trying to suggest either that we all have model girl/ fella proportions but rather what kind of statement the garment + pattern(s) makes as a wearable personal creation.

In a later lessons - I would like to deal more with inspiration for stitch patterns, more on colour reduction, pattern placement and then with the vexed question of texture and stitch patterns which have a working chart which bears no relation to the image one.

May I stress at the onset that any patterns/lessons/graphics I put on the Internet are in the Public Domain. Therefore, any patterns of mine you download from Roz's or Terri Hagerty's site http://www.monumental.com/hagerty are copyright free. It is however, common courtesy to acknowledge sources if you use them in any published work under your name. You are free also to clean off the garment shapes or blocks, save and use them to pattern fill with your own work.

Note from Cathie: Since all these files have been transferred from Roz's page to Northtipton, the same copyright free offer also applies to Kathleen's work here.

I said at the end of my very last book, Creation 6: Pattern Input and Design, (1994 o.o.p) that I wanted finally to write a book on computer knit design. Well, these "lessons" are it; I had no idea that it would be written in this way or that you would see my graphics in colour!

Re. the "models" - I have found drawing on the computer surprisingly easy - I've been at it 7 years, starting with the Amiga and DPaint in that!. A lot of these are scans of my own drawings or tracings I have done of drawn/photographed models in magazines I've worked for (with permission) and then greatly altered by me as to stance, expression, position of arms etc. Sometimes, I have traced directly from an acetate sheet onto the screen.

I don't like miserable looking models, so if mine look unreal, maybe it is because I have tried to make them cheerful and not moodily magnificent! Please note: most of the work was done on the PC in DPaintE, but I know now how to do the same kind of thing in either Paint or PSP, or both, and will tell you. So we go to 1 -

1. The problem of different patterns - I have found a rather crude early drawing of mine, of a girl wearng a plain yellow sweater. On the screen beside her are a collection of Teddy patterns. Which one is it to be? I'll let you decide. Are you going for the large single motif? What about a row of smaller Teddies above the welt? I suggest you do the work in Paint. Download into PSP first, then select and put in the Clipboard. Load in Paint. under Edit/Paste From. Make your choice and place on the garment. If you go for a row of small Teddies, these are best stamped along as cutouts (select, press Ctrl and draw away a copy and stamp) In fact we are now onto an important technique re. placement of borders - they are often best placed by stamping, and not by pattern fill.

(If you want the stitch patterns for your collection, use the magnified grid in PSP or Paint via Clipboard and Prt Sc as I have explained before. The stitch patterns can be selected as they are, provided that they are in 256 cols (change in PSP) and sent via the clipboard to DAK, SPG etc. IN DAK, load under Scaled Paste and save. For CUT (C6), convert in PSP.)

Sometimes, we can draw with the Line tool, in another colour, a "barrier" line (removed later) in the 2 rows of stocking stitch which often separate a border and repeat patterns. We then pattern fill above or below the "barrier". Capturing/selecting a motif exactly for pattern-fill is crucial. Note the co-ordinates in Paint (bottom taskbar) and get the stitches and rows correct before you move to pattern-fill in PSP via Clipboard.(Pattern - fill must be in 16.7 m cols, choose

Think of traditional Shetland Fair Isle and if you want to look at some, go to the Shetland Isles site http://www.zetnet.co.uk. Horizontal bands of Fair Isle can be pattern-filled if you arrange them one repeat per pattern in a vertical column. They must be the same size. If you tried to pattern fill with a mixed pattern group of 10, 12, 24, 40 stitches wide, you would have to make a repeat block of 120 sts! Keep it simple, but at least you can bring in all your borders from DAK via the Clip board (Zoom/1 pixel) and play around arranging them in Paint. Pattern Fill of course is done in PSP4. Go to the last lessons (3&4) for that.

If you have DAK6, you can take a screen shot of pattern filled pieces on the DAK screen using PSP4's multiple Screen Capture option. Read the manual or Help File on that.

2. The notion of a human model - I have tried to get a life size representation of the garment. Often when, there are several patterns with different placements, or when mirror image or flipping is involved, it is better to see the planned garment worn and not as a flat block. It was like that with my Leopard Lily garment which I designed for my Creation 6 book. It is in 3 color jacquard but with a little alteration you can make it 2!

There is one situation I've come across where I think a flat garment block (with front/back and separate sleeves, or sleeves joined at right angles- is preferable to a model and that is when there is a distinctive horizontal pattern band right at the top of the sleeve. Put the garment on a model and the sleeve top is all but hidden. I am about to plan one for myself like this - using 2 Celtic FI patterns on the garment.

Finally - a few years ago, I designed for a hand-knitting friend some "empty" models with their hands by their sides! We were working in Paintbrush where there is no rotation! I'll send these garmentless empties to Roz to put on her web-site, for those who want an easy pattern fill option. At least you won't have to wrench the arm off and rotate it once it is pattern filled!

Just a word of warning - you will notice a bodyless head of a girl beside a head joined to a boy's top half. When your subject is a little girl, you behead the boy, placing his head reverently to one side, and place the girl's head on the headless torso! It might be less macabre if you made a second body and had a boy and a girl complete with head and top half!

Best wishes Kathleen
Kathleen Kinder k.kinder@daelnet.co.uk

Feel free to make copies of the Graphic Lessons for your personal use. The following copyright notice must appear on all copies
Copyright (c)Kathleen Kinder, 1997, 1998.