slightly unravelled

Sunday, March 26, 2006

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).

2 Comments:

  • Found my way here via the Beginner Babe webring and thought I'd stop in and say hello :o)

    I haven't tried Intarsia yet...but I will attempt it at some point (probably when I gain more confidence lol).

    By Blogger Shelley L. MacKenzie, at 3/28/2006 11:56 AM  

  • Hello Erica. (do you know that Erica is the German version of Heather?)
    Thanks for wanting to knit my Lacey pattern :o)
    I've heard that it has been a popular pattern, but haven't seen many photos. There was a knit-a-long on the knitty site, but I haven't checked it for a while - but you might want to ask there as I'm sure people will be happy to show off their finished objects - and if they do, please let me know as I'd love to see them to!
    Let me know how you get on :o)
    ttfn,
    Heather xxxx

    By Blogger Heather, at 4/05/2006 11:05 AM  

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