How I colour knitting texture.

Knitting Texture.

Hi everyone! A lot of people have been asking me to share how I make a knitted texture when I colour with pencils so I thought I would do a quick photo demo that should be easy to follow. 

If you would like the Knitted Cat digi that I have used you can find it in my etsy shop here:

LINK TO THE SHOP! Knitted Kitty is $1, or approx 95p!

I made a topper for my card on the computer. When I added the digi I made it much paler than normal so the lines are less obvious when I colour it. I also added a greeting in Carbon Type Font.

I printed my topper out onto kraft card. My topper is 14 cm x 14 cm. 

I then coloured in the jumper. I used four pencils for this -

101 - White 

110 - Phthalo Blue 

154 - Light Cobalt Turquoise 

156 - Cobalt Green 

Any colours could be used, following the formula of white, then a light, medium and dark shade of the same colour. I chose a light source coming in from the left and added shading according to that. 

Next I draw lines down the jumper, effectively adding stripes. I keep my pencil sharp. With my darkest colour (No.156.) I follow the shapes I made when I coloured the jumper, so bulge the line when the material bulges, dip it in when there is a crease. I could also break the line when there is a sharp fold in the material and continue slightly offset from the original line.

I carried on down the sleeves too.  Just like on a knitting pattern, there is seam on the jumper and my lines can restart at that point. I have a seam on the shoulders of the jumper, and restarted my sleeve lines from there.

Now a bit of a zoom in. Still using No 156 and still with a nice sharp point I added diagonal lines between each vertical stripe, changing the direction of the diagonal on the next stripe but making sure they meet up. 

I did this all over the body, trying to follow my pattern as best I could and not getting stressed if some bits were slightly wonky, lol. I have in the past also done the diagonals as a zig zag line horizontally, rather than down each column, but I find it's easier going a bit slower and moving vertically.

Now I add in on the sleeves, cuffs and roll neck.

When the jumper is covered I go back to each "stitch" and round off the edges. I am still using 156. I pretty much scribble a rice shape into each stitch. I go round a few times for each stitch, in a scribbly fashion, I don't worry about being too neat. I have tried doing it very carefully and slowly and filled all the gaps, but I don't think it's worth the labour. I just scribble all those round bits in! If there is only part of a stitch showing, I just scribble in a "u" or an "n" shape.

 I started doing this on the body first, relatively roughly and quickly, with a sharp pencil.

Until I had done it all over. I also added a bit of stitch detail on the inside of the cuffs.

I then go in with a white pencil and highlight a few stitches in places where the light would catch, so on the left hand side on the sleeve and left hand chest area. It's not a huge difference in this colour scheme but on other colours it can add a lot of dimension.

Next I pop in with a darker shade than my knitting shades, I used 151. I add a bit of darker colour to the lines I have made in the shadier sections of the jumper. It's not a huge difference, but once again adds a bit of dimension.

Jumper finished! Finally can now colour in the kitty. I am doing the kitty after the jumper because I want some of the kitties hair to go OVER the jumper, not the other way round!

Kitty done too! Now onto making it into a card!

 Hope you enjoyed the process and I hope you feel like having a go yourself. I have reduced the price of this digistamp if you would like to have a go with her but you can add knitting texture to any digi where there is a spot to squeeze it in! Here are a images of projects where I have used it (Click the picture to visit the blog page) -

(I'm sorry the original links to the LMMS site and blog no longer work but I've left up the pictures so you can still see some examples!)

Above is my version of  Celeste Amberglow Winter Woods from Little Miss Muffet Stamps, click on the picture to see my blog post. I shared my technique with Barbara (from LMMS) and she came up with this fab version of Polka Dots Pal Jane! So another two stamps that are perfect for trying the knit tech on! Click on the picture below to see more deets on her blog for the project she made!

Thanks for popping in! :D Any questions? Please feel free to comment on this page, or do me an email? I am eekbob1@hotmail.com