Firstly, a HUGE thank you for all those of you who took the time to listen to me prattling on and give some feedback. It was lovely and very heartwarming to hear. For the record, I opened a libsyn account yesterday. Stay tuned....
For those of you who have not yet got into the full flavour of blog week, please, if you do nothing else, look at yesterday's posts from everyone. They were absolutely brilliant. It never fails to amaze me how talented a bunch we bloggers/ Raveler's/ Crafters are. WOW
Today's topic is terrfiying, 'Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant?'. Eep. As I said, I've not been knitting that long and everything has been a new skill, hard fought and won. I loved learning cables, reading charts, lace (shudders at the many memories of tinking) and two at a time socks. (For the record I just got to the second heel then knee highs are go).
The thing that I would love, more than anything to conquer is colourwork. This is the thing I keep flirting with the idea of and running from. Stripes, colour changes, no probs. But good, proper stranding, fair isle or heaven forbid, steaking just leave me weak at the knees. I have made myself this little promise that if I stashdown enough, I will pick a pattern of colourwork, buy the yarn and dedicate many foul mouthed nights to it. I'm sure I could match something in my stash but this is a good excuse that I'm happy to hide behind thank you very much.
In the interest of not leaving this post imageless, here are some of my favourites, tagged so as 'COLOURWORK' on Ravelry so I know why I am too scared to put any in my immediate queue. All images are from the original designers with thanks.
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| Swedish Fish Socks by Spilly Jane |
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| Alice in Wonderland Mittens by Jennifer Lang |
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| Bohus Forest Darkness by Annika Malmstrom-Bladini |
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| Paper Dolls by Kate Davies |
As always, please do take a look at everyone's entries for todays. I've had an amazing week where people's creativity has blown me away. Knock YOUR socks off here.
15 comments:
I really want to do colorwork too. I love spillyjane. Have you seen the cupcake mittens?
Colourwork really isn't as hard as it seems - it's just all knit stitches in the round - and spillyjane rocks! You should just go for it, i'll supply the cocktails if i'm lying and it really is too difficult!!
I wrote pretty much the same post, hehe I love the random synchronicity of it : )
I love the look of colorwork, though I've only done the simplest of patterns so far. But a whole Fair Isle sweater? That's one of my aspirations.
I think you'd do well to start small, like with the socks, to get comfortable with the technique.
I second that colourwork isn't half as hard as what it seems, and I'm glad so many people are really keen to give it a go.
In terms of a beginning pattern (kind of an introduction to colourwork maybe?), I reckon a tube scarf is probably your best bet. You can just keep knitting, no increasing or decreasing, trying to work in your pattern around heels and stuff like that :D
Ha, I chose to write about colourwork too, and I also chose one of Spillyjane's designs as an example! Those Alice in Wonderland mittens are awesome too, by the way!
The Bohus Forest Darkness by Annika Malmstrom-Bladini is amazing and would really suit you. Pretty colours. I also love the socks. So cute. I'm not much of a one for cute socks mostly because I resent wearing things on my feet anyway so socks are never going be my friends but I can admire them as fashion for other people. Also this is rather ironic given my own latest crochet endeavour.
The thing I want to learn is to just keep my tension steady enough to make garments successfully. I wanna make myself a lace sweater. Sigh...
I'm planning on attempting my first colourwork project very soon, without trepidation. You have the skills, so go for it!
Those are some great patterns to aspire to :O). I haven't tried any of the above yet, well Fair Isle and I will get acquainted some time this month soon, but I found this great video for steeks that I bookmarked for the future and that Susan B. Anderson referenced when she turned her daughter's pullover hoodie into a button up or zipped one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs6Kw6wGnNk
I love that Kate Davies pattern. And thank you for the silver's sock tutorial hint on my blog, how did I not know about this?!!!!
Good luck! I have the pattern for those Swedish Fish socks, for once I get over my anxiety about colourwork socks...
OH, just jump in! Once you get started, you'll be fine!
go for the swedish fish. That looks more connected(?) than the Alice mittens. Both are seriously cute!
colourwork always looks harder than it is! Maybe try a little practice swatch with two colours, and see how you feel. it'll give you the confidence to tackle your first project.
I also had colourwork as my skill to aspire to. But I hadn't seen those Alice in Wonderland mittens, I am adding them straight away to my faves on Rav!
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