Freestyle knitting

Generally speaking knitting takes lots of planning.  It is nearly impossible to just sit down and improvise. There are yarns to select, gauge to consider, patterns to program.  If you're knitting a garment, there are numerous calculations:  increases, decreases, shaping.

Last week I had a freestyle knitting experience!  And on a knitting machine nonetheless!!

I was knitting a white cotton version of a swatch that I had originally done in beige wool, hoping to make it more mesh-like. It involved lots of tucking (knit 1 row below, for hand knitters) and lots of racking (lateral movement of the beds of needles.)  It's necessary on my Passap knitting machine to keep track of and control the racking myself, but I made a mistake on row 14 and didn't realize it until four rows later. Instead of de-knitting the last four rows, correcting the mistake, and re-knitting, I decided to improvise.

First, I attempted a new pattern for a few rows. Not so good. I kind of remembered a technique I learned a long time ago, so I stopped all patterning and just knitted for about 10 more rows. With the needle pattern I had set up for the swatch, these last 10 rows created a rib.  I cut the yarn leaving an end of about 12 inches. I removed the swatch from the machine stitch by stitch by threading the yarn end through each loop. The yarn end became a drawstring, which I pulled as much as I could. I now had a lacy spiral of knitting.

I knitted a narrow, short yellow tube by doing simple circular knitting, about 10 needles on each bed, a couple of needles in non-working position on each bed. Twenty rows, crochet off, insert yellow tube in white lacy spiral, stitch in place and it's a... flower!

A  flower's not a thing I usually knit.
It's the size of the palm of my hand.
I'll sew it on a hat or wear it in my hair.
Hmmm... but maybe not!