Here are "in process" pictures of the Lion Brand Jester Hat (sweater to come!) that I'm making for a co-worker (baby son due at end of December). I've never worked with multiple yarns like this and I wasn't sure how to handle the change of each yarn. The back is so messy - is there a trick to making it look neater? (Please forgive the overexposed photo of the back - I'm too lazy to go upstairs and take another picture. Hopefully, you can see the yarns carried across.
BTW, my son picked the colors (Cottonease Popsicle, Orangeade and Vanilla). Kinda like the Miami Dolphins.
It doesn't look as bad as you think. ;) We're always our own worst critics.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing to do when working with more than one color is to be consistent. If you're carrying one yarn in each hand, don't switch hands. If you're carrying them both on the same hand, pick one to be carried on top and don't switch.
I'd agree with Beth - we are our own worst critics. And even though we can see all the "mistakes" in the work - the recipient won't even care what the inside looks like! :-)
ReplyDeleteNow, on to your question - working with multiple colours, floats, messiness, and making it purty.
Your floats look fine. Because you're working in Cotton-Ease, you don't have to worry about much shrinkage due to washing/wear. Felting will not occur.
Multiple colours - same as what Beth previously said - no matter how you work them, be consistent. If you always have Orange-ade in your left hand and Vanilla in your right, then every time you get to a row where you're working with both colours, keep the right on the right and the left on the left.
As for the "twists" and alternative methods - I always make sure that the next colour [A] leads from its last point, UNDER the previous colour [B], and comes to the right and above/over the previous colour [B].
Another way to put it would be to imagine that you have a clock in your lap - one of those generic large plastic kitchen clocks. Hold it by its edges (9pm and 3pm) and rotate it away from you (along the 9pm and 3pm plane) - as if you're trying to show it to someone, but you're keeping it upside down from their perspective.
That "clock" is your current knit work. And the new colour [A] will follow around the clock, clockwise, and wrap around the previous colour [B].
One thing to consider when doing this is that with the constant clock-wise wraps, you'll eventually have to either rotate your yarn skeins in the opposite direction, your overall knitwork in the opposite direction, or knit with pre-measured bobbins of yarn (hard to do when you're not sure how much yarn will get eaten up during your intarsia work).
Another option would be to try and wrap the yarn on every stitch. The colour you want to appear on the right side will be pushed forward, and the wrapped yarn will be pushed to the wrong side (inside of the hat and sweater). It's a lot of work - and Karen had been using a few page-samples from the new Knit-A-Day Calendar.
I can't remember the exact date - but it's a sample of a white and red sock, with an intarsia-ed red cabin (or some such thing). Ask Karen - she'll help you!
Good luck. I think that it's looking great so far! Keep it up!!!