Slightly Successful

In order to do some more tests, I had to create more swatches, of course. I thought, I might as well experiment with knitting while I make swatches. I tried knitting a square diagonally, that is starting with a corner and increasing every row. I followed some directions I found online:

And it was very not square. It looked to me to be about a 45 degree angle. I tried it again with double the amount of increases and sure enough it was much more square.

So I last left off with unsuccessful cyanotypes on a wool blend. I realized that actually the previous yarn was only 30% wool and 70% acrylic, so maybe it would work on pure wool. I should try it I suppose to be fully sure of the effects of cyanotype on various fibers. But I tried 100% cotton yarn, which is very-not-so-fun to work with because it feels like a dishtowel. But actual success occurred. Legit success, as you can see below. Regular rectangle, and diagonally knitted parallelogram, cyanotyped.

Legit success with cyanotypes on 100% cotton. Applied with foam brush.

                          Then I had my first meeting with my AT. It was actually pretty amazing. She thinks my project idea is much too small. She thinks I should work huge and really make it something that will have impact when people stand in its presence. She thinks it won't be all that much more work if I just use ridiculous huge yarn. I could tell that her faith in me was restored and/or established after I showed her my warrior-shield-cowl thing I knitted a few years ago. She thinks I should create something on that level in terms of being unconventional and filled with variety. She said that she could tell that the cowl was knit with joy and enthusiasm in my heart, and if I don't knit this piece with the same feeling, it will not be moving and therefore would not be successful. She thinks I should cyanotype a much larger area of the work. She was very impressed with the idea of printing cyanotypes on knitting. She asked me, "What can you do to make the photographs less recognizable?" And here I was worried about the photographs not being recognizable enough. I said, "That would be very easy to make them less recognizable." She has commanded that I spend the first several months purely experimenting. Using big and small needles, using combinations of yarns, combinations of stitches, etc. before I even start my large project. She thinks I should do one experiment a week. So since my visit last week, I have been knitting up some more swatches.

experiment with needles that are too big. I don't like it.

swatches to be cyanotyped

Berry stitch detail

Seed stitch with stockinette detail

Bee stitch detail

My new theory is that making the knitting more textured will obscure the photos. She also wants me to experiment with just laying various semi-transparent objects on the cyanotype-coated knitting and seeing what that does.