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January 10, 2006
Practicing
Thank you all for your advice on this fair isle stuff. I tried a variety of things yesterday and decided that I actually like one color in each hand the best. I'm still not sure on the weaving or floats, but I started using floats and it seems to be ok. I'm a little concerned about the floats around the corners of the dpns, but I'm trying to keep them loose. We'll see if it's enough.
Basically, the floats start at about the black line of stitches. Do the stitches look better above that point or is there no real difference? I find that I have to really concentrate on not knitting too tight with my right hand. I can't remember if it was the same when I learned to knit or if this is just a right hand thing. I did have better control of the tension with my right hand by the end of last night, but as you can see, I still have a long way to go.
Comments
I'm honestly not sure I can see a difference, little details like that are sometimes hard to see in pictures. But it's looking nice, trust me, if you can do colorwork on Dpns, you'll do great on BUtterfly, I found the Dpns much harder then when I knitted my sweater.
Just give it time, you'll become accustomed to it and it won't seem odd at all.
Posted by: Rebekah at January 10, 2006 9:53 AM
I can't see a difference yet, but you should be able to feel a difference soon, with your speed and your tension. How's Ombre coming? Hey, it's your knitaversary month!
Posted by: Angela at January 10, 2006 10:09 AM
Good for you in taking time to practice and get the right tension and feel of it. You might try moving your needles around and not staying with the same count to minimize the problem at the end of the needle. This has been a hard technique for me to master, too.
Posted by: margene at January 10, 2006 10:41 AM
I think it looks a bit more even since you started floating. Like Margene, I'm impressed that you're taking the time to try all your options - good for you.
Posted by: PumpkinMama at January 10, 2006 11:13 AM
I'd say things look a little crisper, in a good way, above the line, but there isn't enough knitting to really tell for sure. I found that if I twist the yarn around each other on the last stitch of the DPN/circular needle, that it helped with keeping the float the proper length. Keep at it.
Posted by: Purly Whites at January 10, 2006 12:35 PM
Looks pretty good. Practice.
Posted by: Chery at January 10, 2006 1:17 PM
Slow and steady wins the race! ;)
Posted by: Lolly at January 10, 2006 1:36 PM
Looks great! I can't really tell if there is a difference, but I agree that it can be hard to see small nuances in photos. I like doing floats more than weaving. Hopefully we'll both get better at this two-handed fair isle!
Posted by: caitlyn at January 10, 2006 1:41 PM
It looks pretty good to me. My only experience with fair isle was a total disaster, so you're very impressive!
Posted by: Zarah at January 10, 2006 5:48 PM
It is looking good. One thing to keep in mind while doing color work is that whichever color you are carrying below the other will appear to pop out, or be more dominant of the two colors.
Posted by: Dianna at January 10, 2006 6:19 PM
i like to do floats, too. i weave in ends for the little fairisle work i did on cheesylove, it was really tight, almost no stretch after it's all done. floats are better. this is your first project so don't be too hard on yourself!!
Posted by: blossom at January 11, 2006 12:00 PM
You're getting me inspired. One of my knitting NY's resolutions was to learn colorwork and seeing yours getting started has me all intrigued. I think it looks great and I love the red and black together.
Posted by: Kris at January 11, 2006 12:38 PM
I can understand why you are obsessed with these mittens...they are gorgeous! I really want to learn Fair Isle.
Posted by: Eilene at January 12, 2006 3:26 PM
