Squeezing Some Knitting in on my Working Vacation

This is one of the reasons that Fair Isle can be a pain. This is my latest design project. I have been working on this for a couple of weeks and you can see that for every color you add, you get two yarn ends that need to be woven in.

My favorite method of weaving in loose ends of thread is to "skim" them into the back of stitches. Skimming can be done vertical or horizontally. In skimming, you put the needle into the yarn instead of under or around it. The picture on the left shows a my needle splitting the strand of yarn. After splitting 4 or 5 stitches I pull the stitch through.

While I can try to explain what is done with pretty pictures and try and describe what it is I do--I think that I will let the master take care of it. TechKnitting had a three part series on how to work in ends. Part one is how to  skim; part two on weaving and part three on weaving for ribbing.

Enjoy! Happy working in ends.

If You Are Going To Order One Book, Save Postage and Buy Two!

Since I had to "accidentally" purchase Alice Starmore's book, I decided to order a second one. This one is Mary Jane Mucklestone's book, 200 Fair Isle Motifs. The book is chock full of color plates sorted by the number of row and then by the number of stitches. I think that it would make it pretty easy to select an entire sweater worth of pattern.  In addition ,to the motif catalogue, the book contains a section on Essential Skills of Fair Isle Knitting. With information on yarn selection, proper equipment, swatching, color selection and steeking, this is a great resource for someone who wants to begin Fair Isle Knitting.

Happy knitting!

A Quick Book Review

Some books are bought after a lot of thought; some books are bought after a quick "look-see". Some books are bought by accident. Or should I say this book was bought after an accident. Thankfully, I really liked the book!

There are a couple of colleagues at my office that are fiber artists. I told you about one who taught me how to spin my own yarn. She got Alice Starmore's Charts for Color Knitting as a gift from her husband for Christmas and was generous enough to loan it to me for a weekend to read. I intended to return it to her on the following Monday, but she was out of the office, so I carried it back and forth on my commute one more time. 

I drink a large thermos of coffee every morning on the way to work. I guess it doesn't take much effort to imagine what happened next -- after only a couple of sips of coffee, I threw the thermos in my commuting bag, but the lid was not closed properly, and my bag was drenched with coffee -- extra cream. The book was in another compartment, but there was enough coffee was in the thermos that the binding on the book turned brown. So I had to hop on Amazon and buy a new copy for my colleague and I kept the coffee copy for myself. At least I really like the book.

This is the new and expanded edition. In it, Starmore has a number of traditional and self designed motifs. The traditional patterns come from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Russia and several other countries. The charts of the patterns in the book are clear and easy to read. The photos of her work are treats to the eyes.

I have already made good use of my "accidental" purchase. I have two of the motifs in my new design that I am creating. You can see the first motif (the triangles) just above the ribbing.

I'll use this book a lot -- it's a classic!

Happy reading about knitting!