Recently in Periodic Table of Knitting Category

I apparently never posted this one but it's been up on Flickr for the last 5 days.

Earlier this month I opened a topic on Ravelry asking members to name significant knitters. I knew my knowledge of the craft and of important knitters was limited, and I didn't want to exclude anyone who contributed a lot to knitting. It turns out, there are quite a few names out there, not just pioneers in all the different categories; entities such as publishing houses, design magazines, and groups such as Ravelry were mentioned as well. It got to be a longer list than I thought (so many notables I'd never heard of), and at some point the scope of my inquiry went farther than I expected.

And in the end I realized all these names couldn't be added to this one.

Copyright just about sums it up: these people and entities should have the right to how their names are used. (Read this.) I know, it sounded like a fantastic idea in the beginning, having a periodic table with great knitters in there, because after all, we refer to some of the best in shorthand: EZ, KF, AS, BW. But I'm aware that while some of these knitters may be enthusiastic about having their names on this, others might not be. This project could possibly become a minor income stream for me, and there is the possibility that some knitters would object to my using their name for a business venture.

I could obtain permission from each and every single person mentioned (or their decedents). I could do that. I'm willing to bet that most of them would say yes, but somehow I think that good things could go wrong. I certainly don't want to deal with legalities when I'm in residence elsewhere. Ick. Can you imagine the logistics for that?

I finally decided to drop Noble Knitters. But just when I made that mental "No" in my head, another idea popped up.

And in the end I realized all these names could have their own periodic table. Oh yes!

Stay tuned on that development. For now, enjoy EZ: she was truly one of the greats.

Here's a bigger version.

BASIC INCREASES

YO and yoX (X being any number of stitches; see the symbol as well) cover any number of stitches made by winding yarn around the right needle, and cover both knit and purl yarn overs.

Kfb and pfb don't have a specific symbol assigned, but I've seen them in some cases as a 2 above a V. This pair is also known as bar increases, for creating a slight bar at the bottom of the originating stitch.

INTERMEDIATE INCREASES

M1 stands alone, but really it it's M1L, if you're considering matching increases. So for now I'll leave it as M1, and have M1L and M1R. Unless someone has any insight on this. 

LRI and RRI, the raised increases, involve knitting or purling into the stitch to be worked, or just worked. This is my personal favorite increase, and works well with top-down sweaters.

In this file, LRI and RRI are advanced decreases, but I think they're intermediate. It'll be fixed in the final table.

LASTLY

We have the generic incX, which could involve multiple yarn overs or M1s or 4 needles and a glass of wine.

Does anyone have other increases, the esoteric, the strange? (Also on Flickr.)

These are additions (click for bigger version) based on comments on the previous entry. A few of them could be possible replacements as well.

I forgot about k2togtbl (also written as k2tog-tbl) as a paired decrease to k2tog.

I'm happy to learn about sppo, because I don't think I've used it before. (It also goes to show you I haven't explored as much knitting technique as I wish I did! Call this a learning experience...)

The last 4 are concessions toward the various decreases using more than 2 or 3 stitches, in the regular fashion and twisted through the back loop. There aren't any charts, because the designer makes up their own. You see the introduction of the double-line, which I don't particularly fancy, but it comes as a necessary evil: this chart must be legible from at least 5 feet away.

 (Also on Flickr.)