Friday, January 12, 2007

Intarsia

I am knitting an intarsia sweater using 2 strands of Drops(Garn Studio)Alpaca. Beautfiful yarn. Lovely handle that makes it a pleasure to hand knit with. The gauge I get using 4mm needles is 24st and 32 rows to 10cm. The company recommend 23sts and 30 rows using one strand and 2.5mm to 3.5mm needles! That is far too loose, imo.

Anyway, I originally wound up a whole load of bobbins to hold the individual strands on for the work. No good. Too heavy and too easily got into a difficult mess with the bobbins getting caught in the yarn. Took too long to untangle.

I recalled reading that Kaffe Fasset did not use bobbins but just long strands of yarn. I thought this would get very tangled up. It does but it is not a problem! I have found this by far the easiest way to knit intarsia, the yarn is easily knitted and I have not had to stop once to untangle.

You can see from the pictures what the back and front look like.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can vouch for this. The back does take a lot more work with extra ends
to sew in but it is so much easier to occasionally untangle metre long
lengths than bobbins. I feel the extra work is worth the decrease in
hassle.

Lix

(BTW - Lovely jumper Colin!)

Unknown said...

Colin,
As usual, your work is wonderful to look at! You mentioned wishing to do Fair Isle but nervous about steeks - well, I'm about the same way with intarsia!

Maybe I can try something small when my sweater is done - and I will try this method - weaving in ends doesn't bother me at all - or not very much.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, thanks for this, Colin. I'm learning, learning, learning, but I'm afraid I am pulled away from the machines for a few weeks as I have to make a gown to wear to a formal fundraiser for the Humane Society: The Fur Ball. hahahahahaha!

Sheila said...

I color the graphic look of the sweater. I would never have guessed that knitting with loose yarn would be easier than bobbins. But then bobbins get heavy. Can't wait to see it finished.