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Knitting Balls
So I wanted to knit balls. Christmas balls, that is, using my own Mergelland yarn. The famous Arne and Carlos wrote a book about it. I’ve bought it and tried the pattern using 4 mm circulars. Quite obviously they’ve used different yarn, so the ball I ended up making would require an XXL Christmas tree.
Sizing down the pattern isn’t difficult, but I was not too happy with the esthetic aspect of increases and decreases. I tried a few things without really thinking it through, so now I have a series of different balls. Every single ball has some kind of issue: holes that make the filling peep through, unbalanced increases and decreases which make both sides of the ball look different, almost invisible or over-large increases and decreases.
That’s where I started thinking that I should approach this more systematically. How many different ways can one imagine to knit a ball? Which one is most suitable in which situation? Which type of increases and decreases do I prefer? How do I pair them?
That’s only considering balls in stockinette stitch! See that little garter ridge on the grey ball? How do I avoid those circles becoming squares because of the increases and decreases? Not showing on the picture: I tried cables … What a disaster! I’ve frogged them instantly!
All the thinking and trying out has taken a bit more time than I thought. Let’s be clear, we’re no longer talking Christmas 2017. Before we’ve sorted it all out, it’s going to be high time to knit the 2018 Christmas balls!
Want to know more? Keep an eye out for new posts on this blog …