Intarsia?

A little while back I was at a yarn store that happened to be having a sale and I saw this Aurora 8 yarn that was really cheap. And I was very excited about the bright orange color, but they only had two balls, which didn't seem like enough to make anything. So I decided to get the two balls of orange and three of a neutral taupe color, thinking I could combine them to make some (small, sleeveless) sweater.

I've been thinking about the yarn and decided I want to make a little tank top (a wool tank top? Well, you can call it a "camisole" if you want to, but for some reason that word has always made me feel a little ookey, so I'll go ahead and keep calling it a tank top. It's cute and little with straps instead of sleeves. A tank top.) using both colors, with one on the right and one on the left, joining in the front and back in a curve, kind of like a yin-yang symbol. But since I have less orange than taupe, I might make it asymmetric, with a smaller section of orange. There would be some waist-shaping and some cute little straps, and overall it's a pretty simple top.

I watched the video on knittinghelp.com on intarsia knitting to do the two colors together, and it seems pretty simple. I swatched my yarn some to get an idea of what it will look like. Obviously it's going to take lots of planning and experimentation to get the curve to be the degree that I want (unlike the zig-zag I seem to have in my swatch). There might be a couple of weird spots in it (including the cast-on, which I wasn't sure how to handle), but it's my first attempt and I'll practice more before I start making the top.



So, the problem?

Well, for one thing, I might be a little foolish to think that I'll be able to achieve the smooth gentle curve I want with this yarn. It might be too big. But that's okay -- I'll figure it out before I make the top.

The real problem is that I want to make it in the round, and intarsia in the round is not nearly as intuitive as it is knitting back and forth. I found a couple of sites with instructions on how to do it, so I think if I read the instructions carefully and practice, I'll be able to do it. The instructions I plan to go with are these. They have me knitting and purling, even though I'm knitting in the round. I think this thing is going to take me a lot longer to make than it would if I were just using one color (and used a pre-existing pattern).

...and I still can't decide

I started making the picovoli, but I'm still on the fence as to whether I like or dislike the variegated yarn for the sweater.

I thought I would only have to knit a few rows to figure it out, but I'm through the armholes and still not sure. I guess I'll keep going for awhile, still ready to rip it out if I decide I don't like it.

I'm a little worried about the rolling in the neck. Hopefully blocking will take care of it, but I'm not too confident. I opted not to do the picot edging because I don't really like it, but it probably would have helped control the rolling edges.

Indecision

I swatched up some soysilk yarn, potentially for Picovoli. I love the colors, but I don't know if I'll want a whole sweater out of something so variegated. I'm still undecided after swatching, so I think I'll probably have to start making it and see how I feel about it, being fully prepared to rip it out. I think the size/weight/texture of the yarn is perfect for Picovoli, but I just don't know about the jumble of colors.


Ignore the bobbles on the swatch. I was just practicing to see if I could figure out how to make them. I may use them in a different project if I decide I don't hate them.