Patchwork Knitting

I'm still fiddling with the Bond Antepenultimate Knitting Machine and my basket of worsted-weight cotton yarns. I've learned that inelastic yarns like these don't work well for intarsia or cables on the knitting machine. My hand knitting led me to expect trouble with intarsia--springy fibers like wool work much better for picture knitting, but I've always liked the way hand-knitted cables look in cotton yarn--highly defined, sort of sculptural. On the knitting machine, the cable crosses pull so hard on the machine's needles I'm afraid they will bend.

Right now, I'm knitting long skinny strips in different shades of green, with the intention of sewing them together to make flat fabric. Then, I can cut out pattern pieces and sew them together. I've had good luck with this in other projects. I cut new necklines in a couple of wool ready-to-wear sweaters, and knitted on new neckbands successfully. I didn't need to finish the cut edges--the wool was already lightly felted, and didn't ravel at all. When I cut apart and reshaped an oversized cotton sweater, I drew on seam lines, zig-zagged the lines on my sewing machine, cut away the excess material, and machine-stitched the pieces like any stretchy knit fabric. That's what I'm considering for this project, but I'll have many opportunities to change course.

Here are some links on ways to make knitted fabrics a little bit at a time.

Strip Knitting

• A review of Anna Zilboorg's Knitting for Anarchists by Matita C. Leng, including a pattern Matita was inspired to create after reading the book.
• Some of Anna Zilboorg's strip-knit sweaters
• A handsome strip-knit vest

Modular or Patchwork Knitting

• Patchwork possibilities with variegated yarns
• Mitres - aka Dominoes or Patchwork Knitting by Megan Mills She demonstrates pretty much all the mosaic knitting tricks on one dandy Web page.
• Knitted Hexagons Blankie from Simple Knits blog from Vicki, who knits and spins.
• Freeform Domino Knit Tam. Well, this finally answers my question--what is this "Domino knitting?" The book adverts don't give a hint in text or photo. Turns out it's all hype--it's knitting a shape, then picking up stitches along the edge of that shape, and knitting another shape, ad infinitum. Glad I didn't spend money on the books.
• Who Invented Modular Knitting from The Girl from Auntie's blog includes the patent for the process filed in 1948.
• Modular Knitting adventures from blogger Teyani