Fair Isle project

Nyssa wrote in message ...
Aud wrote:

that the yarn must not float more than three stitches.
Then you have to "wind it around"/"cross around" the thread
you are knitting with.
This makes a even backside.
But if one color is much darker than the other, you should be aware of
the "right side".
If you wind the yarns at same place several rows after eachother,
you will get a "row" of darker/lighter vertical shade.
Therefor you should shift a bit between the different rows.
It is a bit difficult to explain in English, but I hope you
understand!
AUD ;-))

Thanks Aud. I understand you quite well. No translation problems
at all. LOL!

I'm doing the wrap thing only on the rows where the float is
more than 3 stitches. My problems are more in the line of the
way I'm wrapping the float; it keeps getting looped around the
working yarn, so I have to stick the left needle under it and
pull it around and back.

The other problem I'm having is twists in the balls of working
yarn. I have to stop halfway through the row and untangle/untwist
the trailing yarns. It would be great if I were making cording,
but it's really annoying to have to stop and untwist constantly.

Any more tips?

Nyssa, untwisting and wrapping

Nysa, I knit the continental way,
with the yarn over left hands fingers:
OVER forefinger, UNDER next, OVER ringfinger and UNDER the little
finger.

If I have TWO colores, the second yarn starts OVER THE TWO first
fingers,
and is woven under and over the "rest" of the fingers.

This way
*the yarns (after a little practice :-)keeps their individual tension.
* The yarns lies parallell ower the fingers all the time, and If you
have to wrap/ weave /cross it often, you can vary if you cross "over"
or under".That makes less fuss,(but NEVER prevent it!LOL!)

If I work with THREE colores,
prefer to find a way similar to this,
but many prefer to have the third one in right hand side,
and knit that color the american way!

I do THAT if I have a FOURTH color!!!

If you knit like I have told you,
you have to put attention to the yarn tension,
but that comes with practice.

Earlier we always made our yarn balls ourselves, and they were balls,
rolling along, accross and made a lot of trouble,
a lot more than with ready made balls :-)
We had many different "more or less good" solutins:
Put the different yarns in its own "bowl", and it will be where you
place it.
OR put them in one "plastc bag(?)" and you tie it almost together so
the ball will not fall out, but the yarn comes easily out.
After a round or so, you "UN-BREAD" it.
I just place them in different direction,
and enough separated from eachother, so they do NOT roll around
eachother.
I do NOT think there are any good solutions that prevent all fuss.Then
have to adopt solutions from weaving/knitting factories.
Just now I am WEAVING "hundreds" of loose ends
(small stripe pattern with many colores),
because I did not take the job to do it as I worked!
This is the charme of hand knitting, I think.
AND a lesson ; "How can I do this better nect time."

Good luck!
AUD ;-))

Nyssa wrote in message ...
Aud wrote:

that the yarn must not float more than three stitches.
Then you have to "wind it around"/"cross around" the thread
you are knitting with.
This makes a even backside.
But if one color is much darker than the other, you should be aware of
the "right side".
If you wind the yarns at same place several rows after eachother,
you will get a "row" of darker/lighter vertical shade.
Therefor you should shift a bit between the different rows.
It is a bit difficult to explain in English, but I hope you
understand!
AUD ;-))

Thanks Aud. I understand you quite well. No translation problems
at all. LOL!

I'm doing the wrap thing only on the rows where the float is
more than 3 stitches. My problems are more in the line of the
way I'm wrapping the float; it keeps getting looped around the
working yarn, so I have to stick the left needle under it and
pull it around and back.

The other problem I'm having is twists in the balls of working
yarn. I have to stop halfway through the row and untangle/untwist
the trailing yarns. It would be great if I were making cording,
but it's really annoying to have to stop and untwist constantly.

Any more tips?

Nyssa, untwisting and wrapping

Nysa, I knit the continental way,
with the yarn over left hands fingers:
OVER forefinger, UNDER next, OVER ringfinger and UNDER the little
finger.

If I have TWO colores, the second yarn starts OVER THE TWO first
fingers,
and is woven under and over the "rest" of the fingers.

This way
*the yarns (after a little practice :-)keeps their individual tension.
* The yarns lies parallell ower the fingers all the time, and If you
have to wrap/ weave /cross it often, you can vary if you cross "over"
or under".That makes less fuss,(but NEVER prevent it!LOL!)

If I work with THREE colores,
prefer to find a way similar to this,
but many prefer to have the third one in right hand side,
and knit that color the american way!

I do THAT if I have a FOURTH color!!!

If you knit like I have told you,
you have to put attention to the yarn tension,
but that comes with practice.

Earlier we always made our yarn balls ourselves, and they were balls,
rolling along, accross and made a lot of trouble,
a lot more than with ready made balls :-)
We had many different "more or less good" solutins:
Put the different yarns in its own "bowl", and it will be where you
place it.
OR put them in one "plastc bag(?)" and you tie it almost together so
the ball will not fall out, but the yarn comes easily out.
After a round or so, you "UN-BREAD" it.
I just place them in different direction,
and enough separated from eachother, so they do NOT roll around
eachother.
I do NOT think there are any good solutions that prevent all fuss.Then
have to adopt solutions from weaving/knitting factories.
Just now I am WEAVING "hundreds" of loose ends
(small stripe pattern with many colores),
because I did not take the job to do it as I worked!
This is the charme of hand knitting, I think.
AND a lesson ; "How can I do this better nect time."

Good luck!
AUD ;-))

Nyssa wrote:


The other problem I'm having is twists in the balls of working
yarn. I have to stop halfway through the row and untangle/untwist
the trailing yarns. It would be great if I were making cording,
but it's really annoying to have to stop and untwist constantly.

Any more tips?

Nyssa, untwisting and wrapping

Nyssa,
I find that using bobbins really helps with that problem. THey were awkward
at first, but now I can't imagine doing fair isle or intarsia without them.
HTH
Katherine

It sounds very nice,..and difficult!
Was it INTARSIA? Then you knit back and forth on two needles(or a
round needle) and you wind the yarn in small bobbins, don't you?
But when you knit Fair Isle (or other multicolorpattern) in the
round,do you use bibbins as well?
....
and.. it seems that google have got a hickup!!!
when I sent the message I got the error message
that "they" could not find the server,
and I tried again and again!
Well,as you see... the server was obviously found at last...:-))
AUD :-)


(NoraBalcer) wrote in message ...
Hi Nyssa,

I loved Auds explanation to you as that is how I was taught to do it. I loved
knitting with more than one color, the more the merrier for me. I once made a
Mary Maxim kit with the train on the front and at one time there were more than
twenty colors being used. Now, I would wind the yarn on bobbins instead of
letting them hang down. I always had bobbins in use.

Hugs,

Nora

In article ,
Nyssa wrote:
Aud wrote:

that the yarn must not float more than three stitches.
Then you have to "wind it around"/"cross around" the thread
you are knitting with.
This makes a even backside.
But if one color is much darker than the other, you should be aware
of the "right side".
If you wind the yarns at same place several rows after each other,
you will get a "row" of darker/lighter vertical shade.
Therefor you should shift a bit between the different rows.
It is a bit difficult to explain in English, but I hope you
understand!
AUD ;-))

Thanks Aud. I understand you quite well. No translation problems
at all. LOL!

I'm doing the wrap thing only on the rows where the float is
more than 3 stitches. My problems are more in the line of the
way I'm wrapping the float; it keeps getting looped around the
working yarn, so I have to stick the left needle under it and
pull it around and back.

Are you using wool? My book on Fair Isle knitting says that
the wool traditionally used for Fair Isle is 'sticky' enough to
slightly felt to itself easily, so floats aren't a problem; however,
most of the designs only have a few stitches per float anyway.
There are only two colors per row, so bobbins aren't needed.
The ends from color changes are taken care of by (oh, heresy!)
tying the ends in a knot where the knot will be hidden in the seam.

The other problem I'm having is twists in the balls of working
yarn. I have to stop halfway through the row and untangle/untwist
the trailing yarns. It would be great if I were making cording,
but it's really annoying to have to stop and untwist constantly.

That sort of goes with the territory, but if, when you twist
the yarns at a float, you take turns twisting it in opposite
directions, it might help keep the tangling down.

If you are winding the yarn into balls yourself, you can wind
a pull-skein ball; just keep the "inside" end so that it sticks
out of the middle of the ball, and use that end to knit with.
If you get a nostepinne (a smooth stick with a bit of a lump
in the middle), it's supposed to make it easier to wind a
center-pull ball. You wind it around the stick and then pull
the stick out.

Fair Isle is so beautiful, someday I plan to try it.

=Tamar

I appreciate all the good advice on fair isle techniques. One thing I haven't
tried yet is knitting with both hands - I tried doing it continental style the
other day and it actually worked pretty well for me (I have always done it the
other way with the yarn in my right hand) I noticed Aud was talking about
possibly two yarns in the left and one in the right -- but I think that is
probably beyond me. I do think it might work well for me to have one yarn in
each - though I think that will cut out any TV watching or other such pursuits.
In the past I have done a variety of things with several colors but have
always had to pick up the different yarns as I went using just my right hand.
I do try to follow the three stitch float rule -- otherwise those floats tend
to get snagged and pull.
Aud wrote:

that the yarn must not float more than three stitches.
Then you have to "wind it around"/"cross around" the thread
you are knitting with.
This makes a even backside.
But if one color is much darker than the other, you should be aware
of the "right side".
If you wind the yarns at same place several rows after each other,
you will get a "row" of darker/lighter vertical shade.
Therefor you should shift a bit between the different rows.
It is a bit difficult to explain in English, but I hope you
understand!
AUD ;-))

Thanks Aud. I understand you quite well. No translation problems
at all. LOL!

I'm doing the wrap thing only on the rows where the float is
more than 3 stitches. My problems are more in the line of the
way I'm wrapping the float; it keeps getting looped around the
working yarn, so I have to stick the left needle under it and
pull it around and back.

Are you using wool? My book on Fair Isle knitting says that
the wool traditionally used for Fair Isle is 'sticky' enough to
slightly felt to itself easily, so floats aren't a problem; however,
most of the designs only have a few stitches per float anyway.
There are only two colors per row, so bobbins aren't needed.
The ends from color changes are taken care of by (oh, heresy!)
tying the ends in a knot where the knot will be hidden in the seam.

The other problem I'm having is twists in the balls of working
yarn. I have to stop halfway through the row and untangle/untwist
the trailing yarns. It would be great if I were making cording,
but it's really annoying to have to stop and untwist constantly.

That sort of goes with the territory, but if, when you twist
the yarns at a float, you take turns twisting it in opposite
directions, it might help keep the tangling down.

If you are winding the yarn into balls yourself, you can wind
a pull-skein ball; just keep the "inside" end so that it sticks
out of the middle of the ball, and use that end to knit with.
If you get a nostepinne (a smooth stick with a bit of a lump
in the middle), it's supposed to make it easier to wind a
center-pull ball. You wind it around the stick and then pull
the stick out.

Fair Isle is so beautiful, someday I plan to try it.

=Tamar





BRBR

JCT

In article ,
JudyTurpin wrote:

One thing I haven't tried yet is knitting with both hands - I tried
doing it continental style the other day and it actually worked pretty
well for me (I have always done it the other way with the yarn in my
right hand)
snip
I do think it might work well for me to have one yarn in each -
though I think that will cut out any TV watching or other such pursuits.

Just make sure you always have the color that you want to show up most
in the left hand. For some reason, that position makes the stitch more
noticeable. Keep the "background" yarn in the right hand. It really
makes a difference.

=Tamar

Just make sure you always have the color that you want to show up most
in the left hand. For some reason, that position makes the stitch more
noticeable. Keep the "background" yarn in the right hand. It really
makes a difference.

=Tamar BRBR
Thanks -- I will try that.
JCT