Poster Boy by Debbie Stoller

Poster Boy

Knitting
November 2004
Aran (8 wpi) ?
18 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches
in Stockinette stitch (St st)
US 7 - 4.5 mm
US 8 - 5.0 mm
250 yards (229 m)
11 inches wide, 12 inches long
English

Pattern description from Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation: “These days, everyone’s carrying interesting little tote bags with images screenprinted onto them. Poster boy came about when I was trying to figure out if there was a way to make a similar image in knitting. I wanted to make a two-color image that was not as regular as the kind usually done Fair Isle patterns, yet not as simple as those often made using the intarsia method. Poster Boy is knit using the Fair Isle method, where the color not in use is carried along behind the working color, but is twisted with the other yarn about every five stitches so as to avoid long strands hanging at the back of your work. Just about any black-and-white image that isn’t too complicated can be knit this way. Start by taking an image into Photoshop and making it 11” wide, with a resolution of only 6 pixels per inch. Play around with the brightness and contrast so that the image is reduced to black and white but is still recognizable. Print out the image, get yourself some knitter’s graph paper, and lay the pixelated image underneath it on a lightbox. Color in your chart with a pencil. Then grab your needles and make that poster boy come to life!”

Size: 11 inches wide, 12 inches long

Special Skill: Fair Isle

Materials:

  • Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted (85% wool, 15% mohair; 113g/125yds)
  • MC: 1 skein M81 Red Baron
  • CC: 1 skein M105 Black
  • US 8 (5mm) 16” circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge
  • US 7 (4.5mm) straight needles
  • 1 yd lining fabric
  • Sewing thread to match lining