Simple secret code rib knitting

Another variant of secret code knitting I’ve thought of involves making the ribbing at the edge of something different heights based on what letters you want to use.

In this case, the simplest encoding is to figure out the number for each letter (A=1 through Z=26); alternately, you can write the letters of the alphabet up the side of a chart and work out the height that way.

Here I’ve egotistically used my name and charted it out the way I’d want to see it on a piece of knitting, from left to right.

Naomi Parkhurst:

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N is 14, A is 1, O is 15, M is 13, I is 9, P is 16, A is 1, R is 18, K is 11, H is 8, U is 21, R is 18, S is 19, T is 20.

So each letter gets a knit rib, with a plain purl rib in between, and otherwise the pattern shows best with the background in reverse stockinette (purl bumps facing outward), you could of course have the letter ribs in purl with a regular stockinette background, but it’s less striking in appearance.

The ribbing I’ve made from this so far was worked in the round, and so I made it inside out – this required flipping the chart from left to right so that the letters would show correctly.

Next: Making a grid