So, in a rare burst of creativity I had the bright idea a month or so ago to create a poster for the IA Summit in March. I submitted a proposal for a poster called "Wireframe as Art." I would take the humble wireframe from paper and transform it into other media, specifically cross-stitch, knitting, and quilted.
I've been working on and off on a cross-stitch version of a site blueprint. It's coming along, isn't very challenging, and I really should be more finished with that I am.
Today I picked out a wireframe to base all my wireframes upon. I wanted to ground this work in a real deliverable that we used for a real client. I got out my four balls of yarn and started to work.
I cast on 60 stitches, knitted four rows, and then added another color for the footer text. I did this in a purl stitch (the rest is just stockenette), because I thought the difference in texture would add something. It just looked stupid.
So, I ripped the whole thing out, cast on 60 again and stitched four rows. This time I added the line of color matching the stitches of the background and I like it much better. I added on another four rows of background.
Now comes the grey boxes. I added the gray like I did the line of color of the text, and quickly realized that I was carrying over way more yarn that I probably needed to. It was messy and ugly, so I ripped that out. I found one of my knitting books and read up on multi-colored knitting.
The wireframe really isn't going to be that big - probably about the size of a placemat. So I took the suggestion from the book and made small balls of yarn and put them in separate cups. This way I could pick up the color I needed as I got to that section. I'm just working with squares and lines here... shouldn't be that bad.
Well... let me recap a bit for you.
1. I started knitting one year ago. I've made three scarves and am 2/3 done with a sweater. I still don't know how to decrease. Ripping out makes me nervous because I have a hard time picking the stitches back up.
2. I'm making up the pattern as I go along.
3. I've never worked with multiple colors before. I now have 7, soon to be 8 jars of color feeding into the work.
4. Apparently you have to do something when you are knitting blocks like this so they don't end up separate and with holes between the color blocks. I haven't quite figured out how to do that consistently.
5. While the stockenette stitch looks nice, it's rolling like no one's business. I knew it would do that, but underestimate just how much. I still don't know how to go back and add a ribbing to the edges so it doesn't roll.
So, I now find myself in the middle of a mass of controlled chaos. I've been knitting for 4 hours so far and I'm afraid to stop because I'm worried that I'll be lost when I pick it back up. Not to mention the fear that the cats will "help" with the yarn management. There is no way I can do this on a plane. Which is fine, I just now really feel like I have to hurry up and finish this while I still know what is going on. And feeling hurried is not A Good Thing for this project.
