Just Do It!

so i was all set to write a post about crazy aunt purl's intarsia situation and found myself paralyzed with writer's block because  how can i even attempt to write an interesting and amusing blog post when by virtue of linking to her post, my  post will suck by comparison.   suck suck suck.  even my cats are less interesting....

but there's something i've got that she doesn't --- so take that you knitting blogger rock star --- i'm not afraid of intarsia.  so there ...

anyway, the purpose of this post wasn't to be all "in your face" and it wasn't really to educate because i'm not an expert knitter, but rather to show that if i can do it, you can do it. 

first of all, there's no magic with intarsia ... at least i don't think there is.  when switching colors there is one thing to remember  ... be sure to wrap the yarns around each other so that you don't get a hole.  as for whether to use bobbins and weaving in the ends or stranding across the back this is what i do.

if it's a great expanse  of color then i use bobbins (and that's just another way of saying i cut a length of yarn and roll it up into a little ball), but if it's just a little motif here and there or there are only a couple of stitches of color change, i strand.  just like that.  am i 100% correct?  probably not.  i know there's some expert knitter out there who will tell me that i'm wrong, but you know what?  it works for me, and i'm not afraid of intarsia.

case in point ... the "never to be finished although i promised i would finish them last year ... oh shit i just remembered that i forgot her birthday !!!! .... fuck "  chicken pillows.

chicken pillow 1 -- the prototype ...

(it still needs to be blocked, so no mocking)  here's the front.

here's the back.  we've got bobbin work here and very ugly stranding that should not have happened because the expanse of black was too wide.  but hey, i learned and moved on.  but where i had just a couple of stiches of black or color, i stranded.    (yes i still have to weave in the ends.)

here's chicken pillow 2

and here's the back ...

see, not so terrible.  when stranding,  just remember to keep your strands nice and loose to prevent puckering of the fabric.

and here's an example of stranding that actually serves the purpose of creating a warmer, denser fabric.

here's a detail of a sweater i made a hundred years ago (i'm so afraid that the pattern will show up in stitchy's MOKS one day).

and the other side:

let me tell you, this is one warm sweater, but because of all of the cables and bobbles on top, the stranding on the bottom half of the sweater works.  plus, if i had used bobbins and then weaved the ends i would have never finished this sweater.  i probably would have ended up strangling myself with all of the yarn ends.

anyway, my point is, there are no hard and fast rules.  just try different things and see what happens.  the worse that will happen is that it'll suck and you'll have to try something else but unless you blog about it, no one ever needs to know.

and thus concludes "Intarsia and You .... Perfect Together."

Comments

[laurie]

Woohoo! Intarsia chickens!!

This is helpful, seeing the back of the work, like that. Now I keep thinking... Strand and deliver! Strand up for what you believe in! Strand and be counted!

Because I am whack that way. Love that chicken!

[Lee Ann]

Those are some amazing chickens there...snazzy :-)

[melanie]

yay. chickens.

[Kathy]

Great and informative post. Not all sucky.

[Jenn]

Cool chickens! I'm actually glad someone posted about this, as I didn't know how to do intarsia till now.

[Bron]

See - that's what I have to work on...keeping my blogging mouth shut about my mistakes. ;)

I'm not afraid of intarsia either - I just don't like it and will move heaven & earth so I don't have to do it. :::grin::

I do, however, like OTHER people's intarsia - very cool chicken. :)