I realized 2 weeks ago that summer was almost over and that I had only a month to plan the little one's very first birthday. It was also that time that I realized that I haven't even started on the sweater that I wanted to knit for the little guy to wear at his pirate themed party. Seeing how past knitting projects have taken me at least a month to finish, I thought I should get my butt into gear and start that bad boy up! Yes, yes, it's a baby sweater and therefore much, much smaller than if I were to make a garment for myself. I just didn't want to take the chance and leave it for the last minute to knit up, only to run into a snag somewhere.And boy, am I glad that I planned ahead! The back knitted up pretty fast - as in 2 days fast, and I got to work on the front. Yeah...there's that snag I was fearing. My previous intarsia work had been simple, solo motifs like hearts, stars, the word "geek" (those of you who knitted that wristband from the first Stitch n' Bitch book know what I'm talking about!), so I was a little hesitant to do something this...intricate. My first try at the color work resulted in so many holes that I didn't bother going any further after 10 rows into it. My second try was a little better, but I realized that I had twisted and pulled the yarn a bit too tight and it had caused the image to distort a bit in some areas. I was finishing up the bones when the urge to frog it up and restart overtook me. I had originally frogged the piece to where the intarsia would have started, but since the yarn is black and the lighting was poor, I couldn't tell what I was putting back onto the needles. So I bit the bullet and frogged the rest.
I decided to take a break from the front and moved onto the sleeves. I figured I might as well get the easy stuff out of the way so that I could fully concentrate on the hard part later. I have to admit too, I'm addicted to knitting up both sleeves at once. I will never knit one sleeve at a time, ever! What's the point? By doing both simultaneously you don't ever have to finish one side and then dread having to do the exact same thing for the other side. It's pure genius! I think in the future I'll be doing pairs of legwarmers and socks (if I ever get around to making socks, that is) at the same time. So much faster and easier!
So that's the current WIP. Once this li'l guy is finished I'll be back at it with the Tilted Duster. 'Til then, arrrr me mateys!!
that is so cool! I have a top in my rav queue that has an anchor on it but I have never knit intarsia before so I am a bit scared. Do you know any patterns that would be a good beginner intarsia project?
ReplyDeleteI think several colors within the intarsia is scary. I say just dive in head first! You won't know until you do it. I don't really know of any good beginner projects though, sorry. My very first intarsia project was a wristband that said "star" on it - it was from the first Stitch n' Bitch book. Then I did a bunch of samples of simple shapes just to get the hang of it. My second project was the knee pads with the hearts. I'm not sure if you're up for it, but maybe try knitting up some small square samples? I used the power of the internet to get some tips on how to do it.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps? Good luck!!