Confronting Fair Isle

I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid.....actually I feel much more confident about tackling stranded knitting, aka fair isle, I'm not a stickler for the exact term. Arietta has helped me realized I can do anything! I am going to conquer knitting with two colors at a time. The pattern is found here: http://www.halcyonyarn.com/newstemp/knitscene_fairisle.html - I think this is the best picture of it online. The name of it is "Road to Golden", by Lisa Shroyer, who is the editor of Knitscene magazine, where the pattern is found. I love it! I like the way it looks like a cap sleeve T-shirt with a longer shirt underneath. So cute!

I'm using Valley Yarns Northhampton, which is a newer part of their own line, of course the link to them is http://www.yarn.com/ . I've decided I wanted to throw caution to the wind and pick my own colors. I've included my swatch here, what do you think? Please be gentle, it's my first stranded swatch. It's definitely going to take some getting used to. At least I don't have to purl over this sweater, since it's knitted in the round. I'm using a chocolate brown for the main color, mainly to help camoflauge the arm area.

On another note, this reminds me that I owe a post about the color help recommendations I've found/received from my friends at Knit Talk. Here they are, there's not a whole lot, but it may help some of those who are wanting to step into color knitting:

-Here is a great blogger who plays with color a whole lot: http://knittingincolor.blogspot.com/ - this blog is a treasure trove of good articles and resources.

http://impulsivearts.typepad.com/knitting/2007/03/playing_with_co_1.html - this post tells you about a great photo editing software (free!) and then proceeds to teach you how to do cool things to your pictures to get interesting effects.

-The link below brings you to a cool website where you can play with colors, there are many lovely color palettes to get the creative juices flowing!

http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/search?sortType=rank

-What would we be without Knitty? Of course there are some great articles there:

http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/FEATcolortheory.html
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/FEATcolor.html
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/FEATtechnicolor.html

Some advice from Knit Talk friends:

-“What I do is take all the colors I am thinking about using and find a way to put them in more or less the proportions I would use them in...more on that in a minute...and put them at least across the room. Further than that if I have a long unobstructed view of them together. You can see things at a distance you don't always see right up close.”

-”Okay, the best way I have found is to take a long narrow strip of cardboard and wrap the yarn around it to make "stripes" of the colors in more or less the proportion and order in which they will "appear" in the item I am making.”

-”Putting one ball of each color in a pile only works if you are using the exact same amount of each color. If something is only an accent then you need very little of it in your sample.”

-”Or if it is something that I will investing either a lot of time or a lot of money on then I will make something small from the choices. Mittens, a hat, a headband, something large enough to see what I am doing but small enough to get done.”

Meanwhile, in other knitterly news, I am still plugging away at my lace shawl from Alison Hyde's book, the "Kathy Shawl". I haven't forgotten about Arietta, I'm working on the second sleeve and I need to order the rest of my yarn. I've included a couple pics that I wanted to try to show the texture of this pattern, it is so cool. I love Lana Grossa Cool Wool!! Awesome yarn, such a treat. Wish I could get the great shots Jared over at Brooklyn Tweed gets. Guess I need a better camera. Alright, need to run and take care of that kiddo. Have a great weekend.