Table Of ContentCurls
Vv
versatile,
wearable wraps
to knit at any gauge
uU
Hunter Hammersen
Curls
versatile, wearable wraps
to knit at any gauge
Hunter Hammersen
Pantsville
P r e s s
Text © 2014, Hunter Hammersen,
with the exception of the text on page 11 which is © 2014, JC Briar
Photos © 2014, Hunter Hammersen
Charts © 2014, Hunter Hammersen
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or
mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permit-
ted by copyright law.
All business names, product names, and trademarks used within are the property of their
respective owners.
Charts created with StitchMastery Knitting Chart Editor.
ISBN: 978-0-9849982-5-8
First Printing, 2014
Printed in China
Pantsville Press
Cleveland, Ohio
www.pantsvillepress.com
Contents
Introduction 1
Anatomy of a Curl 3
Hints 6
Gauge Needles, & Sizing 7
Charts 8
Blocking 9
Stitch Maps 10
Patterns
Caesious 12
Cerise 16
Gridelin 20
Argent 24
Pavonated 28
Infuscate 32
Ianthine 36
Watchet 40
Nacarat 44
Sinopia 48
Filemot 52
Icterine 56
Fulvous 60
Chlorochrous 64
Thanks 68
Sources 69
Ó
12 16
20 24 28
32 34 40
44 48 52
56 60 64
Introduction
It started, as these things so often do, with a The flexibility of the shape puts you in total
swatch. A pretty little stitch pattern caught my control. The projects shown here are made
eye, and I wondered how I might incorporate with everything from light fingering yarn to
some increases while maintaining the pattern. worsted weight and range in size from delicate
After a bit of playing around, I found I had little cowls to shawls I can wrap around myself
a rather interesting shape. A few hours later, twice. And any of these patterns would work
I had a pile of swatches, a stack of scribbled in any of the weights of yarn and look beauti-
charts, and (confession is good for the soul) a ful at any of the sizes.
maniacal glint in my eye.
And the flexibility doesn’t stop there. You can
The more I played with the shape, the more I knit your Curl however you like, but you can
loved it. It was gently curved on both the top also wear it in a multitude of ways. Leave the
and bottom, which let it sit beautifully on all fabric open, let it wrap around your shoulders,
the rounder parts of the body. One or two of and pin it in place (like Chlorochrous, page
my swatches got wrapped around my wrists 64). Crumple it up a bit and drape it around
as cuffs, and some of the larger ones found your neck (like Cerise, page 19). Wrap the
themselves pressed into service as cowls. It skinny end around the thicker end (like
didn’t take long to realize that, if I didn’t make Pavonated, page 29). Fold it in half and pass
myself stop, I’d soon have pieces that could the ends through the fold like a scarf (like
serve as scarves or shawls. Argent, page 27). Throw one end over your
shoulder while the other drapes down your
With that, the spark was struck. I saw that I
chest (like Caesious, page 15). Form it into
could put together a collection of incredibly
a loop and wrap it around your neck (like
flexible patterns for pieces that could be knit
Ianthine, page 29). Or let the bulk of the piece
at any gauge, with any weight of yarn, and to
sit on your chest and bring the ends behind
any size. But what would I call them? They
your neck (like Icterine, page 57). You really
weren’t really cowls or scarves or shawls, or
can’t mess this up. Your Curls will drape
at least they weren’t until a knitter decided
beautifully no matter how you wear them.
to make them so. As I looked at my swatches
Experiment and find your favorite way!
and admired their lovely curving forms, I
realized I’d just have to call them Curls. The
name seemed to fit perfectly. I confess, I’m still
rather infatuated with them. I think you will
˙
be, too!
1
Anatomy of a Curl
Before we dive in, let me say you can totally 1 Edge This section makes up the straight
skip this part (though I do recommend you edge on one side of the Curl. It will be
at least read the Hints section, page 6). It is two or more stitches wide and will have as
officially allowed. You can turn to the patterns many rows as the main repeat.
and dive right in, and everything will come
2 Main Repeat This section is the main attrac-
out fine. That’s half the fun of these projects.
tion. It’s the pattern that makes up the field
They just sort of work on their own! I will
of your Curl. It can be any size.
never know you skipped ahead, and your
Curls will be lovely. 3 Wedge This section prepares you for the
next instance of the main repeat. Its size
But if you do want to understand what’s going
and shape are the most variable of all the
on (either to modify the patterns provided
pieces. It will have as many rows as the
here or to make up your own), this is the place
main repeat, and its width will be a mul-
to be.
tiple of the width of the main repeat. It will
I’ll begin by taking you through the pieces of often incorporate parts of the stitch pattern
a Curl. Then I’ll talk a bit about how a Curl found in the main repeat.
comes together, how the charts are laid out,
4 Increases This section lets your Curl grow.
and some of the modifications you might see
It gives you the new stitches the wedge
from one pattern to the next.
needs. It will be four to six stitches wide
This diagram shows the five pieces of a Curl. (and the stitch count may vary from row to
row) and will be as tall as the main repeat.
5 Finish This gets your stitches ready to bind
off. Sometimes it’s one row, sometimes it’s
several, and sometimes it’s not there at all.
These five pieces, taken together, make up the
most basic Curl. But if you just knit that, you’d
have a tiny piece of fabric. The magic happens
when you continue to repeat the edge, main
repeat, wedge, and increases. Each time you
repeat them, your knitting gets bigger, and it
starts to form a lovely curved shape.
The pictures on the facing page show two Curls It all works because the wedge and the
spread out flat and oriented more or less the way increases make room for more copies of the
you’d wear them. The bound off edge (section 5) is main repeat. That means that once you’ve
on the bottom. The increases (section 4) are on the worked through your edge, main repeat,
top. wedge, and increases once, you’ve got the
3
right number of stitches to work through the Curl is the size you want. And don’t worry,
them again, this time with one (or more) extra the colors on the charts match up with what
repeats of the main repeat. you’re seeing here, and there’s always a note
with all the numbers you might need. Once
This is so much easier to see with a diagram.
you’ve got the stitches on your needles, I think
This picture shows a series of edge, main
you’ll find the whole process very intuitive!
repeat, wedge, and increases worked four
times. See how the number of the main repeat Part of the fun of Curls is their flexibility.
increases? That’s how your Curl grows. While the principles outlined above hold for
all Curls, there are lots of variations. I’d like to
Now to keep the charts to a reasonable size
outline a few here just so you’re not surprised
(and to prevent them from looking too daunt-
when you come across them in the patterns.
ing), they’ll look more like the diagram on the
previous page than like the one below. That Each individual pattern will have a little guide
is, they’ll generally only show you one set of like the ones shown on the next page that
edge, main repeat, wedge, and increases sec- maps out the shape and growth of that par-
tions (plus the finish if you need it). You’ll just ticular Curl.
keep working the main repeat as needed until
44
