Sunday, November 13, 2005

Still trying to fair isle.

I decided to change the yarn for the flap top mittens. Awhile back I went a little overboard on elann for the peruvian collection highland wool. I was time to start using it! Actually it is a great choice for hats and mittens. It's a nice wool, not too picky and not as soft as merino. I also took diana's idea of knitting into the back of the wonky flap sts. It looks better now. Still not perfect as I would like, but better.



Here are the sts of the flap.



Started: November 11, 2005
Finished: November 11, 2005 (I don't know...maybe 3 or 4 hours of knitting)
Pattern: Flap Top Mittens from Handknit Holidays.
Yarn: Peruvian Collection Highland Wool.
Adjustments: I made them smaller than the "child size" they list, using my sons hand as my guide. And I twisted the sts of the flap.

There was a lot of knitting and unknitting this weekend. I decided to start a bag for my SIL for christmas. Once again, taking a pattern from my Handknit Holidays knitting book and some peruvian collection highland wool...I got this (bag is knit top down, so the motif is actually trees):



Ok, its not the best. I still find my "picking" of the left hand yarn and the "throwing" of the right hand yarn are different gauges. I am hoping the more I practice, the better I become...right?
There is still a little pulling with my twists and floats. So this next time around I am going to knit inside out. Tracy asked what that was, so here it is.

Knitting in the round (needles towards you, cord away from you, and right side is out.)
*Refer to photo above.*

Now flip it inside out (needles away from you, cord toward you and wrong side out)



You are knitting at the "top" of the circle, farthest away from you. I know I read it somewhere, in a book, mag, on a blog...that when fair aisling this helps stretch the float a little long around the outside. It does make sense, and so I will try it.

Here are my wonky fair isle sts:



I didn't like the size of the bag I was getting and I did like the smaller gauge I got with smaller needles. So, I ripped it and started on smaller needles, addis (which I hope will help my gauge consistency) and magic loop (just to really confuse myself!).



Now, how do I knit magic loop inside out....
Thank you Tam for drawing to my attention the correct spelling of fair isle!

11 comments:

Laura said...

Lord, but you are brave, trying all these new things at once! I think it looks good, especially the border at the top. And those colors are so pretty together!

Mrs. H said...

I think it looks pretty darn good for someone new to the technique (which is Fair ISLE, named after an island belonging to Great Britain). My first attempts looked like a hair ball!

Ashley said...

Wow--if that's your BAD fair isle, I'd hate to show you mine...I love the blue/tan combo!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous pictures today!!! The mittens look wonderful, and having worked with peruvian collection highland wool, I think it's a great choice for that pattern :). The bag is starting out very well, too!

Anonymous said...

Those gloves are adorable! And your fair isle is looking very nice too! Beautiful color choices!

Anonymous said...

I agree, you are very brave trying out all these new techniques. And you're doing an amazing job. Isn't this book great!

Btw, apparantly the gauge for the socks is correct. I'm not looking forward to trying to knit Cork 10 sts under it's normal gauge.

Tracy Batchelder said...

Love the way the mittens turned out! Great choice of yarn and color.

Thanks for showing the inside out knitting. I think I would confuse myself too much with it, but it does make sense that the floats would automatically stretch out a little longer.

Anonymous said...

yeah, the fair isle was looking pretty good already, you perfectionist;-)
I'm totally trying that inside-out method tonight!

Anonymous said...

Love the mitts! And I think your fair isle looks beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I liked the Fair Aisle. I thought it was funny.

But this is so interesting! Keep at it.

Unknown said...

Those look great!

Oh...our local paper review a book that sounded like it would be up your alley. I remeber you saying you were a laundry person?

Here's the book: Laundry by Cheryl Mendelson. I got a chance to flip through it last night. Huge amounts of info.

I too love the laundry...