This year when I was developing the octagon medallion for Illicium, I used a few different double increases in the center of the star for different effects, some of which surprised me. I thought a systematic approach to looking for their attributes might be a good idea, (and I needed a blog topic, the owl being stalled) so I came up with a square medallion that would show off the different aspects of double increases on different grounds.
I didn’t always use the cdd or purl into fbf, but I used those symbols to mean knit-ish center and purl-ish center.
The grey swatch uses the first two increases of a Tree Increase, and it is the smallest, tightest of the six, perhaps because the increases get slipped every other row instead of worked? I didn’t use a purl-ish increase on this swatch.
The Brown Swatch uses a lifted increase into the center stitch, knit the center stitch, lifted increase into the center stitch. I purled the lifted increases as needed. I was surprised that this one was not solid, but a small hole formed in the stitch under the increase. Also how the garter swatch looked as if there were a knit up the center – the opposite side looks plain. I want to explore this a little more someday.
The Green/Gold/Medicinal Honey swatch uses k, over, k, or p, over, p. As expected, the center of the increase is a bit open.
The Orange Swatch uses k, p, k in one stitch, or p, k, p in one stitch. It was gently open too.
The Yellow swatch used k, kb, pick up the stitch again and knit it, or p, pb, pick up the stitch again and purl it. That one was fairly solid looking.
The white swatch used kb, k, pick up the bar increase and knit it twisted, or pb, p, pick up the bar increase and purl it twisted. That one was very solid indeed.
Did I miss any increases that you know of? I love comments and e-mails. Christine at christineguestdesigns dot com.
I plan to look at each increase swatch individually, make a tutorial for working each stitch, and perhaps look at different ways they can interact with ribbing.
Meanwhile, if you need to think about matching increases to decreases, String Geekery has already looked at the 6 double decreases.
I want someone to come up with a 3 to 1 decrease that looks like the Bunny Ears increase, so it matches smooth increases perfectly in twist stitch patterns. Maybe that will be you.