I am trying to knit the strawberry version of Ann Norling’s fruit hat. I am wondering how to do the seeds. Do I just carry both color threads on a seed row?
Also, if I thought about using a duplicate stitch for the seeds instead, but wasn’t sure what would happen with the long thread between stitches.
Thanks for the advice and help!
I love this hat and the alternate versions of it. I carry the seed color along the back of the row, catch it every 3sts or so, and then carry it up the rows until it’s needed again. You can catch it once on one of the plain rows between seed rows
You could do duplicate st but you’d still have to catch the yarn between the seeds so that you don’t have long loops.
You could carry the yarn and do it stranded style. I haven’t looked at a strawberry lately, but it might be a good idea to do so. I know usually they don’t have many seeds on the hats, but it would be easier/better for stranding if you could put one every 6th stitch. Seed, knit 5, another seed, then skip up a ways and offset the next ones. Really… look at a real strawberry and see if it helps you with placement. There are ways to catch in the stitches to carry them farther than 5 stitches and I’ve done it. It works, but they can tend to show through a little especially if the yarns are very contrasting, red and black might work though.
If you can’t do them quite often like I said above, I think I would do them duplicate stitch. You can carry the yarn across by using your sewing needle and dividing the red yarn every little way and catching it in. Keep stretching the hat as you sew, so the seed yarn stays loose inside the hat so you don’t make the hat get smaller. I think that would show less than catching them in if you carry them a long ways stranded. But you could do a swatch trying the different methods and see what seems to look best. Swatches are always a good idea.
Thank you both for your suggestions! Time to dive in and give it a whirl!