Sunday, February 28, 2016

You're Doing it Wrong:Stranded Colourwork







I like to think of myself as an experienced knitter; in that, most patterns don't faze me, and I do have some practice of test knitting patterns for a few designers. However, when it comes to stranded colourwork I feel I'm more of an intermediate-level knitter.  I don't work with this technique very often as I find it very frustrating and time-consuming; I have to keep unravelling my yarn as it becomes twisted and wrapped around each other. I also find,  more often than not my knitting looks tight, misshapen and a bit grotesque (and as a perfectionist this is a major bug bear for me).   So, being an Aries I tend to enjoy the thrill of the hunt, I will strive to find a solution; I'm not one for backing away from trial or risk.  Cue lots of video watching,  researching online and pattern reading, after ten minutes I found a new tip; two hand stranding, and then I looked over Erica Heusser's hat pattern again and a bold, underlined sentence jumped out at me "remember to keep floats loose!"  For years, I've been strangling my stranded colourwork by pulling my floats so tight their practically pleading for air.  You see, I don't want holes, holes in my kniting would pretty much mean failure; my knitting would end up on the naughty step for sure.
Armed with this new information I set about trying them in my knitting. I was a bit cautious at first but as the rounds of stranded knitting started appearing and mutiplying I became more confident. So confident that I couldn't put the piece down...can you believe... I finished the hat in one night! This never happens to me!

Excited by my new mastered skill, yes I have been a very busy squirrel,  I decided to finish my mittens too!  I then celebrated my achievement with a hot orange (fighting a chest infection at the moment) and an episode of:


I'm totally addicted to not only the series but the theme tune...and, oh what the heck,  maybe  the lead actors too.

Have a lovely weekend. xoxoxo


2 comments:

  1. Yey to mastering new techniques! Your hat and mittens are brilliant, and I absolutely love the colours in theh blue yarn in the hat.

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  2. Thank you Lynne. I'm glad I went with the variegated yarn, instead of a solid, as it really makes the little birds pop. They almost look 3D in real life. Xx

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