Silk City by Alasdair Post-Quinn

Silk City

Knitting
October 2011
yarn held together
Lace
+ Lace
= Light Fingering ?
32 stitches and 44 rows = 4 inches
in double-stockinette, with yarn held double
US 2 - 2.75 mm
560 - 1120 yards (512 - 1024 m)
English

From the pattern:

While thinking about what kinds of objects could really benefit from colorwork in double-knitting, I came up with the usual suspects: hats, scarves, blankets, maybe cuffs on sweaters — the list was quite short. I felt there must be more, and it occurred to me I hadn’t seen many good necktie patterns in general. Those I had seen were either done in garter stitch (reversible by nature, but not terribly interesting) or required construction tantamount to sewing a tie out of fabric. Double-knitting seemed to me to be a perfect solution: it’s reversible, it never curls, and it’s easy to shape. Because a tie needs to be constructed from thin enough fabric to make a rather large knot without being too bulky, it’s best done in a finer-weight yarn, so I had the opportunity to chart a more detailed design.

What’s New?

The yarn this pattern was originally done in is no longer produced, or at least not in any reasonable range of colors. In addition, it was only 5% silk. The yarn I settled on is 50% silk, and looks fantastic — but it is a laceweight, so it needs to be held double to get the right gauge and stitch definition for this pattern. I’ve also made some very subtle changes to the first chart which cause ripples to run through the subsequent charts’ numbering; the original version came with a warning of sorts that began with a Layer-2 row. This is no longer happening (thank goodness) so the warning is no longer needed.