long-winded stitch research
So I'm too much enjoying playing around with my shiny brand-new LJ features, I didn't have the heart to keep you all in suspense any longer (all 2 of you, that is).
Yarn and needles, check; now what stitch to use? When the first Tumnus pictures came out last year, the stitch looked like a simple k1-p1 rib, and so originally I had speculated it as such. Too simple, right?
Entirely too simple. Since then I've compiled the following list refuting my own k1-p1 theory:
Rewatching the film confirmed this theory for me. In most all shots show the scarf carefully, "casually" arranged without twisting to the wrong side. Only two camera angles show the underside that Sophie pointed out, in the scene where Lucy give Tumnus her handkerchief.
Enough theorizing for one day. Next post: putting it into practice - pictures promised!
Yarn and needles, check; now what stitch to use? When the first Tumnus pictures came out last year, the stitch looked like a simple k1-p1 rib, and so originally I had speculated it as such. Too simple, right?
Entirely too simple. Since then I've compiled the following list refuting my own k1-p1 theory:
- While the scarf looks like an ordinary rib, it doesn't behave like one. An ordinary rib left to itself will pull together, causing the purl stitches to recede (hence its elasticity). This rib lays flat enough, however, and the purl stitches are plainly visible.
- Late last year, Sophie emailed me with this varying picture of Mr. Tumnus, noting the horizontal ridges suggesting purls. She suggests there could have been two scarves, the second knitted in "a waffle stitch [ . . . ] made with these directions: *Knit 3 rows of normal k1-p1, with the 4th row knitten until the end. Repeat from *." (Read all of Sophie's observations here; link in French. Thanks to Sophie, and to Coraline for the non-automated translation!).
- In the Tumnus featurette on the Collector's Edition DVD, costume designer Isis Mussenden claims that their team went through 8 scarves to come up with the "perfect Mr. Tumnus scarf." It doesn't take a team of trained professionals 8 tries to come up with something a beginning knitter can snap their fingers at.
Rewatching the film confirmed this theory for me. In most all shots show the scarf carefully, "casually" arranged without twisting to the wrong side. Only two camera angles show the underside that Sophie pointed out, in the scene where Lucy give Tumnus her handkerchief.
Enough theorizing for one day. Next post: putting it into practice - pictures promised!