Jon's Knit Blog

A Note (La! La!) on the Comments

Sorry, I'm just not in the mood to hyperlink. If you want links, go to the comments and see there...

Anyhow, Laura wants to try Fair Isle knitting, and she thought that maybe a 8" afghan square would be a good first project to try.

And Helen suggested that a scarf made from squares would be a good idea.

I beg to differ. And this being my blog, I can!

I'm going to side with Margaret, whose first FI project, like mine, was a hat.

Here's why a hat is a better FI project than a afghan square. It's round. Fair Isle, and all stranded knitting, is easier to knit in the round, because you're always going to be knitting, and you're always going to be carrying your un-used strand along the back. If you start to purl, you have to carry everything along the front of the knitting, and having two strands of yarn, one not in use, between you and the knitting, gets to be a pain. Although the worst part is when you have to knit stranded garter stitch or ribbing in the flat, because then you have to bring your unused yarn from the front to the back, and you have to switch it at every color change. And if you're going to knit it right, you have to make sure that that you move them around in a consistent fashion.

So I recommend a hat.

(Laura and I have been emailing but I thought the rest of you might be interested in our chats. I specifically advised her that I personally like the "King Harald Hat" from Ann Feitelson's Fair Isle book. I'm actually planning to knit it again. I bought extra yarn from the *>'s to have to do this with...)

In general, the most important comment I can give you about stranded knitting is, you cannot strand and knit tightly. The best judge of if your tension is doing ok is how your stitches move across the needle. Pull the work across (on the part you've most recently been knitting - the left side of the needle in your right hand) and let the stitches "relax" as much as they can on the needle. You're looking for absolutely even spacing between the stitches - particularly between the stitches with color changes. If you've pulled tight, you're going to have puckering. If you've not pulled enough, your sweater may gap, or you may have really loose strands across the back which can get caught on stuff. Any other stranded knitting devotees care to contribute their $0.02 worth?

The other advice I gave Laura, which I'd give to any knitter who is new to stranded knitting: DO NOT try to change the colors called for in the pattern. Fair Isle is about color balance as much as it is about the geometry of the pattern. If you choose random new colors, you run a risk of making something UGLY. Knit a few things in the patterns as called for. They're finite elements; the designers know what they're doing and they know this will look good (assuming you choose a good designer.) They've tested lots of color combos and chosen ones that look work. (Note that if you're doing a Norwegian (Dale-type) pattern, which is stranded knitting but not fair isle though there is a relationship... you run a lesser risk if you avoid this rule, they use color in a very different way there.)

And to the person who commented anonymously about the photo information, thank you. Although I thought it rather odd that you commented anonymously. I would have loved to send you a personal thank you email. Oh well! I'll be trying that out soon.

And to all a good night (and a happy Sunday tomorrow, too!) And thanks to everyone for commenting! I love hearing from you.

Posted by Jon at October 2, 2005 12:02 AM