What was to be a flower petal cup cozy bloomed an idea of tedious thrill. The idea is to take many knit shapes and layer them in as another shape is formed to make none other than Knit Armor!
Each scale as they now can be called starts on a size 3 needle casting on 5 stitches. I found it best to start with what i call the "star" cast on because the strings lay in a star shape in my palm, but most call it something (else). So now you are on a purl row with that cast on and simply purl across this row. Next row knit two and preform what is called () where you increase on both sides of a middle stitch through the stitch in the row below. And then the purl row! keep doing this till maybe 15 sts across then just continue the knit for about 10 rows is what i did.
Next step!
Say the bottom row is going to consist of two scales then increase next row to three. Cast on the number of two scales then i put about 10 rows between them (although it didnt seem to really look bad showing so much of the under part, i do think its best to make each scale a tad longer than how far they are spaced apart.) to shape the shoulder a bit i slipped a few stitches nearing the top to give it a bit of a pull on each side.
The best way i found to attach them is to have the scales on another needle held to the front and the first two stitches of the petal to be knit at the same time as the first stitch of the body. This gives it a better edge, then knit each scale stitch with a body stitch then the last two stitches slip knit-wise then the body stitch and knit through the back to give the opposite twist to the stitch.
Woooooo....... now i knows that sounds terribly impossible and when you look at it it seems even more so, my only advice is to get some strong needles, must be metal. I already broke a new pair. *sigh* ok so keep attaching those scales and suddenly there is this turtle shell of the knit armor!! At this time i decided to make all the attaching straps by cabling a single braid for each band and sewed them on (close ups coming soon)
The next on will consist of scales in red on size 6 needles. I think a much stiffer scale will wear better. so i doubled up the yarn and only put 2 scales each row. We will see......
Knit armor-for the huggable barbarian
knit armor- finally i can be battle ready AND hug my grandmother
Hi Octicraft,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your Knitted armour. However, I am having difficulty understanding how the scales are attached to the rest of the knitted work. Can you please clarify? Or make the pattern available for sale with improved directions (its really that good). Thanks, and keep up the great work!