Intarsia Knitting

So it's Work In Progress Wednesday and I have progress on my Rascal Raccoon sweater to show off. If you have ever wondered why knitters avoid intarsia like the plague and you rarely see a pattern for this kind of knitting, here's why:


                                                                             

Yikes!  What a mess!  Intarsia for those who are not familiar with this technique, is a way to knit patterns into a sweater using blocks of one color yarn and then moving onto another color block with a different color.  Unlike Fair Isle where you carry just two colors along the entire row, you can have a number of different colors going at one time. You are picking up one color, knitting stitches within that pattern and then dropping that yarn to pick up another to fill in another part of the pattern.  Here is the front and back and what it will look like when done:

                                                                     

I don't  have alot of experience with this type of knitting ( does anyone?) and I am sure there will be some knitters who will be thinking there is a neater way to do this, but I just plunged into this project and I have to say it has been fun to do -- really!!  Does anyone remember when the Rowan pattern books would be filled with these patterns? 

I picked up Knitting Lessons by Lela Nargi in a used book store recently and I am really enjoying it.  It is a book of short stories about knitting,  beautifully and thoughtfully told by knitters you have never heard of and some that you will know: Vickie Howell, Trisha Malcolm, Teva Durham, Edith Eig.  Who is Edith Eig? She was the owner of the famous La Knitterie Parisienne yarn shop located close to Hollywood and a favorite hangout for knitters in the entertainment industry such as producers, directors, actresses and other woman in "The Industry".  I especially enjoyed the stories of people learning to knit and how they came to be interested in knitting.

                                                                              

I think this is a book that all knitters would enjoy and  you can just pick it up and read it at any time.

To see what other knitters are working on, head over to Tami's blog and read about their experiences.

A Few FO's to Report

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween and that you are getting to enjoy some nice Fall weather.  The trees have shed their leaves, but what a pretty sight they were:

                                                                                     

                                                                                 

My Sibella is finished, and I am pleased with how it turned out.    It was a pretty easy knit and Quince and Co.'s Chickadee yarn was so nice to work with.  The color is Bird's Egg:


                                                                           

                                                                         
Now that the weather has cooled down, here is a picture of me wearing my Freeport Vest:


                                                                             

                                                                               
Here is my current project, the Rascal Raccoon Pullover by Celeste Pinheiro.  It's a raccoon worked in intarsia, so there are lots of messy ends to work with, but this is a labor of love for my grandson, so it's worth it!


                                                                                     

I'm using  Plymouth Encore Worsted which is the yarn used in this project and it's mostly acrylic so I hope it holds up well to washing and general use by an active three year old.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday and have a great weekend!  Check out some other finished projects at Tami's blog as well.





                                             

The Red Scarf Program

I'm working my way through my Sibella and it's been a nice project to knit.  There will be minimal seaming and once I knit the neck, I will be done! You knit the body in the round and then knit the sleeves separately and knit them to the body at the start of the yoke:


                                                                               

                                                                               

This Quince and Co. Chickadee yarn has been great to work with; I love their colors and the quality of this yarn is first rate - no knots or splitting.

I hope to have this done in the next week and will post a picture here.  In the meantime, I am planning on knitting a scarf  for the Foster Care to Success College Fund Red Scarf project.  This is an organization that helps foster children who have aged out of the foster system and are pretty much on their own.  They provide emotional and financial support for those kids that are now enrolled in college  and who need help with everything from money for textbooks, to paying for clothing, food and emergency car repairs.  The Red Scarf project is a popular program and over the years many knitters have knit scarves in varying shades of red to show their support for these kids as well as sending along a note of encouragement as well as donating to the Fund.  All scarves have to be finished and delivered by December 1st and I am hoping to make two.  Here is the yarn I am using for the first one, in a burgundy shade:

                                                                                

The Red Scarf project has links to a number of quick and easy scarf projects and I chose Palindrome, a reversible cable scarf.

                                                                                

          

Couldn't resist including this picture of some of our tomatoes!  They are everywhere and we are making salsa, pasta sauce, crostini, salads, etc.

                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                 

Enjoy the week and check out what others are working on over at Tami's blog.