Madam, I’m Adam. As well as possibly being the first words spoken by one person to another, the previous sentence is an example of a Palindrome. It reads the same forward and backwards. In knitting, its a reversible fabric. It can get really challenging when you’re doing it with cables, but very simple when you’re doing a rib. Most ribs are reversible, but they’re not exact palindromes as they’re not exactly the same on the reverse. A 2×2 rib is a true palindrome as it is the same on both sides. A 3×2 rib wouldn’t be however. It’s reversible, but would be a 2×3 rib on the reverse. I have just finished a sweater for a friend of mine done in a very interesting rib I call Adam’s Rib. Most people know it as the Broken Rib but I don’t like this name at all. It’s a 4 stitch repeat pattern of the following: one row of stocking stitch, seed stitch, reverse stocking stitch, and seed stitch. I have seen the pattern instructions for it in two forms: 4 sts +1 and 4 sts +3. Both variations require an odd number of stitches but once you break it down and know what it is supposed to look like you can do it over any number of stitches of 4 or more.
The back of the first sweater ...
I decided I would do a sweater with raglan sleeves in this rib because I liked the way it looked. I had actually started such a sweater quite a few years ago but it had two rows of stocking stitch and as such wasn’t a true palindrome. Here’s a picture of the back of it. The detail picture shows the reverse of this rib which I actually liked better than the front. Later on I would find the pattern for the Broken (Adam’s) Rib which looked more like the reverse.
The back of the back ...
This is not the reason why it’s in Area 51 though – I just didn’t like the way it was coming out so I stopped working on it. I’ll probably frog it and make a scarf sometime. Anybody want a bright red scarf ?
Anyway, I got my hands on a really nice chunky wool yarn the other day in a milk chocolate brown. I did a swatch in the Adam’s Rib pattern, made my necessary calculations, and started knitting. This sweater turned out to be a learning experience. I knit it up quite quickly while I was working on set (I work as an extra sometimes in the movies) and even managed to make a pair of mittens for a girl who was smitten by the color of the wool. As it turned out though, I made a slight miscalculation on my swatch. Since it is a rib, the swatch gathered in. I stretched it to what I thought looked good and took my measurements from that. The problem is that a 4×4 swatch stretches differently from a 18×23 swatch. Needless to say, the finished product was a little small for me – okay, a lot small. This is where Mike comes in. I instantly thought of him because he was the right build for it, and also this color was perfect for him. So he now has a brown Adam’s Rib sweater and I will endeavor to make another for myself. I did his from the bottom up but I will do mine from the top down in three colors. I plan to have it finished next week sometime and will put the pattern on Ravelry. You can find me on there under mrhugzzz.
- Mike’s sweater …
Now, about that scarf …
Hugzzz 😎
