Thursday 26 January 2012

Huh... So that wasn't as hard as expected either!

I mentioned yesterday that I had finished my fair isle hat *grins* Proper showing off will come tomorrow, for finished object Friday, of course.  But after posting last week about how socks aren't as hard as people expect , I thought I would continue the theme ;)

I've always been a bit intimidated by fair isle. It looks so complicated, and was something else that I thought only really accomplished knitters could do. But I had some yarn for a fair isle hat that I won in a giveaway and decided to add "colourwork" to my crafting goals for this year.

So, I cast on just to test the water. And it wasn't as hard as I expected. I got this far pretty quickly:


I was amazed at what I was achieving *grins* It looks like it should and everything. 

So I carried on, and tried a few tips I'd received through some comments on my first post about it. My tension was pretty tight, but for my first attempt I was amazed that I was doing it at all. And when I blocked it, everything seemed to even up nicely:


I started with my usual style of knitting (English), and dropped the colour I wasn't using as I went. After a while I got a bit sick of picking up and dropping the yarn so I tried holding the contrast colour in my left hand. Incredibly, I got the hang of it and could knit with yarn in each hand. I felt like a bit of a superhero when I managed that *laughs*

As you can probably tell, I am pretty proud of myself at this point. But the fact is, it really isn't as hard as I expected. I picked up a load of new skills (fair isle, picking instead of throwing, reading a chart) which felt fantastic, but I felt like I was cheating - it really is simpler than it looks ;)

This discovery of course meant that I started looking at loads of colourwork patterns. I have yarn to make another hat first, for practice and to improve my tension, but then I want to move on to exciting new things. I can try things with more than 2 colours, for example. 

And then I remembered putting a pattern on my "one day, when I'm good enough" list. Little Birds, by Ysolda Teague:


I love the shape and the simplicity of this pattern. Now I feel like I can actually make it *grins*

21 comments:

  1. Well done! Can't wait to see the whole hat, but the little bit you show looks really awesome.

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  2. Just a word of warning, doing flat colourwork is a LOT harder than colourwork in the round, because for half of the chart pattern you kind of feel back to front. Before casting on Ysolda's pattern, I would try a few swatches worked flat to see if you are going to hate it or not.

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  3. beautiful! someday I will try working with more than one color yarn :-) Just not now :-)

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  4. Great job! I enjoyed my fair isle knitting project.

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  5. Congratulations! It looks wonderful and you have every right to feel proud of yourself. You really have inspired me and I can't wait to try myself.

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  6. Excellent! I can't wait to watch you knit the sweater:)

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  7. I completely agree! I tried doing my first colorwork on a mitten that used 5? colors. Not exactly sure what I was thinking...but in the end it worked out, and I really believe it's SO much easier than one might think! Can;t wait to see the whole hat :)

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  8. Oooh a new addiction! There are a lot of really cool fair isle patterns out there. Check out SpillyJane's designs. So cute!

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  9. Great Job! I was astounded how easy it was when I started doing it and your post last week has given me the confidence to try socks. Any thoughts on the ease of cables?

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  10. I love it when we find out things aren't nearly as hard as we thought they would be! You're doing great.

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  11. That looks lovely - can't wait to see tomorrow's post! Colourwork is definitely something I want to try this year, but because I knit Continental, I'm more worried about having the yarn in my right hand! Your stitches look lovely and tidy - definitely inspiring :)

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  12. Yippee! Your colourwork skills are super, looking forward to seeing the hat in all its glory.
    Blogger has not been letting me comment on your posts for a while, am pleased it is letting me again :)

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  13. Wow, I'm impressed. I've been thinking about trying color work but have been too intimidated. Perhaps I' ll summon my courage and try it. Thanks for your encouragement.

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  14. Looks great! I tried to knit with two colors once and it seemed I had grown four more thumbs on each hand. I have some videos bookmarked I'll take a look at before I try next time!

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  15. That sweater is so pretty. I love it when I learn a new skill and it isn't as hard as I thought. I always thought color work looked hard. It sounds like it isn't had difficult as I thought.

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  16. Well done, I'm still putting off dipping my toe into colourwork. I should really just jump in like you have.

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  17. Way to go! I love colorwork knitting, although I haven't tried more than two colors at once. I don't know if I could ever do a colorwork sweater on that thin of yarn, though.

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  18. It doesn't look like there's a single thing wrong with your tension, the clockwork looks great. And that cardi's on my one day list as well!

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  19. It's looking fantastic! Great job...I just finished my second socks...and hey you should have gotten a letter from me on Rav...welcome to Nerd Wars! I love it! I'm on Team Stargate and this is my third tournament...

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  20. There are some amazing fair isle patterns out there. They are definitely worth the pain they can bring. Your swatch looks so perfect!

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  21. I want to make Little Birds too! Love that sweater! You can do it...I have full confidence in you.
    –Cassandra

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Hi, thanks for letting me know you stopped by :D