Pixels are square, but stitches are not. If your jacquard design is based on an image, you may need to determine the aspect ratio of your stitches and adjust your image accordingly in order to knit without distortion. A test swatch is necessary.

Notes

Eventually, if you plan to knit a garment or anything that requires an exact size, you may need to knit a larger gauge swatch. At that point, I prefer knitting a swatch that includes at least part of the actual jacquard image and large enough to measure an area of at least 100 courses (the number of technical rows visible on the pattern side of your fabric) and 100 wales (the number of stitch columns visible on the pattern side of the fabric). Information for knitting larger gauge swatches for a garment is provided in Session 4. When ready to knit a garment to exact measurements, please see Preparing a Gauge Swatch with a Stitch Pattern and Calculating and Entering Gauge.

For now, however, a small test swatch using the same yarns you'll be using for your project is all that's needed. Sample images for 2-, 3-, and 4-color jacquard are provided in the next lesson. Each check is 5 stitches wide and 5 rows high, so it will be easy to count stitches. Binding off and a reference file are also presented in the next lesson. Calculating the gauge of a swatch is presented later in Gauge, Image Size, and Reducing the Number of Colors.

Types of Double Jacquard

• The various Kniterate "birdseye" jacquards are also known as jacquard twill. Please refer to this document from Kniterate to see the variations. It uses a minimum of 3 colors on the backing.
• The 2-color jacquard with the colors reversed on the other side is sometimes called double jersey jacquard or net jacquard. Scroll down to Notes near the bottom of this page for settings.
• The striper or stripe jacquard (Each yarn knits every needle on the reverse side; the backing has horizontal stripes.) can be knitted if importing a text file from Designaknit 9. This is presented in a later lesson.
• Kniterate currently does not have a macro for what is commonly known as birdseye jacquard ("true" birdseye) in the US and Canada, (and perhaps other places?) where each yarn knits every other needle on the backing, alternating needles each row.
• With all double jacquards, the "floats" occur between 2 layers of knit stitches, so you can't see them in the finished piece.

Importing an Image for a Kniterate Birdseye Jacquard

Notes

• Reference files are provided in the next lesson.
• Ticking "Invert Colors" with a 2-color jacquard will produce the pattern in opposite colors on the reverse side.

Command Introduced in This Lesson

• Layers > Birdseye Jacquard

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