Conquering Colourwork

Colourwork is beautiful, intricate and scary as all hell to tackle for the first time! But it was next in my knitting hitlist of new techniques I want to teach myself whilst I have a fair amount of free time.

As I am currently working as an au pair in Wellington, New Zealand, I have plenty of time when the baby is asleep to do some knitting homework and teach myself new techniques. I have already discussed how I am an entirely self-taught knitter, and in a world of online video tutorials and knitting blogs, teaching yourself is entirely achievable. And as I am in NZ, there is a great deal of beautiful yarn around for me to play with! 

So far I have conquered-

Short Rows

Entrelac

Socks

Cables

Various cast offs- Kitchener Stitch, Picot, Three needle

And I want to learn- 

Colourwork

Provisional cast-on

Dare I say it?! Crochet. I've failed at every attempt so far. 

New Zealand yarn is gorgeous (I suppose it should be given the amount of sheep in this country!), especially a unique variety of merino-possum. Super warm but nice and thin, it comes in beautiful colours. Zealana yarn is sooo beautiful, when I saw it I knew it would produce the most beautiful colourwork. 

Then I had to pick my first colourwork project. My mum and dad were coming over to NZ in January, so I hoped to get a pair of colourwork mittens completed in time for my mum to take home to England. Hopefully the English winter wouldn't be too hard to face with merino-possum covered hands! 

I did some research on Ravelry (cue lots of ooohhhs, ahhhhs!) and finally decided on the Freja mitts pattern. Soooo beautiful! Complex enough pattern to look impressive but using only two colours so it didn't terrify me completely. 

So I have my yarn and my pattern, so now I needed to do some technique research. As usual, I read heaps of articles and watched so many videos, but in my opinion the best explanation of stranded work was on the amazing By Gum By Golly website! Tasha goes into detail of various ways of completing stranded colourwork and her tips certainly made it less daunting. 

So, I dived in. Loved every little frustrating and fiddly moment of it! Not an ideal pattern to have to put down and pick up again when the baby woke up, but with my fancy new iPad app (JKnitHDLite) I could easily keep track of what I was doing.

I got them finished in time for my mum's visit (considering it had only been 6 months since I saw her last, it felt like a lifetime! Queue lots of emotional hugs, tears etc).

I think the most satisfying results come from things that take a lot of love to complete! What were your first colourwork experiences and projects?

HanaLou

x

Scary Short Rows

Now, I have heard short rows discussed at my local knit night. It's one of those techniques, like Entrelac, that I hadn't got round to teaching myself. I didn't know what they were, but from the sounds of things, people don't like them. Like, really don't like them.

So, I avoided patterns with short rows like the plague. This was quite easy, there's so many beautiful patterns you can pick and choose which to make. 

But then, disaster. I found Kate Davies wonderful owls pattern.

And I feel in love. I know it's probably the most famous knitting pattern of the moment (6546 projects on Ravelry last time I checked), and almost everyone I know who knits has made at least one of these snuggly and on-trend jumpers. But I still had to make myself one. I'm confident with cables, and although my first jumper was a complete disaster, I was ready for the challenge. 

My first jumper was made in secret for my boyfriends birthday, only working on it on my lunch hour at work. The gauge was miles off, I used needles that were too big. The jumper, whilst it did look like a jumper, was only suitable for a very fat giant. Gutted.

But, lessons were learnt. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it, and the owls jumper was the pattern that spurred me into action.

I bought my yarn, my extra needles, I had a lovely chat with the girl in my local yarn shop who happened to be wearing her own owls that day. I was excited to get home and start knitting. Then, I read the pattern. Short row shaping needed on neck line. Ahhhhhh!

So, I knitted my body, my sleeves, my owls. I was trying not to think about the short rows that were inevitable. But, I could put it off no long, they had to happen.

And, they are genius! I don't know why people don't like them, perhaps it is just one of those myths that keep putting people off. But it shouldn't! It's such a clever way of shaping a garment, be it bust darts or yokes. 

Short rows are inserted just above cabled owls to help with shaping.

Short rows are rows of knitting where you don't knit to the end of the row, instead you do a clever little technique called the 'wrap and turn' and then knit back the way you've just come. It adds more fabric into sections of your garment, making for a more fitted final piece.

I looked up a number of tutorials, the Purl Bee has a nice one with plenty of photographs. However, I wanted someone to explain it to me, so I completely understood. This jumper was not going to fail!

I ended up doing a lovely free class with Caroll Feller on Craftsy, she told me everything I needed to know. Videos, course notes, everything. In fact it told me more then I needed to know, she explained 4 different ways of doing the wrap and turn so you can work out the best method for you. 

I felt confident after watching the video a few times, and I finished my owls that very same evening!

Finished! Happy face.

Short rows are a useful technique to have in your skill set, don't be frightened by what people tell you. And ask for help if you're stuck. We're lucky to live in this age of Google+ and Youtube and Ravelry, everyone likes to help out (everyone has been stuck before!). 

You'll be glad you learnt it, I promise. And now you have all these new pattern possibilities for you to explore.

Let me know how it goes, and what patterns you use this technique on.

Much love,

HanaLou

Learning to Entrelac.

My finished Entrelac turban, I love it!

As a self-taught knitter I regularly come across patterns that I fall in love with and then freak out because it uses some crazy technique that I haven't even heard of.

Entrelac was just one of those techniques, but I'm quite a determined girl. So I decided to teach myself, just like I have done with other techniques, to begin with basic knits and purls, later cables and then lace. It's just taking things one at a time, and it's so rewarding mastering a new skill. 

I think this new generation of knitters have got such an advantage over previous generations. My Nana tried to teach me to knit when I was small, but I'm left handed and got frustrated when I couldn't immediately knit the same as my Nana did. I gave up. Now I'm a little older, with more patience and the understanding that I can knit how I find it easiest, it doesn't need to be the exact same way as others. 

I can research anything I don't understand on Youtube or Very Pink, or search for tutorials on a few of my favourite sites such as The Purl Bee or Knitty. I'm also a member of a local knit night, and the combined experience there has helped me out of a number of stressful tangles! 

So, I want to write a number of posts discussing different techniques, where to find out how to do them and what patterns you can use them in to test your new skills out!

So, here's the pattern that inspired me to learn entrelac: the Grey Garden Enrelac Turban by Rachel Price and Kate Burge. I'm a sucker for a wooly headband anyway, I much prefer them to hats, they stay on better and they look awesome. I've made a number of cabled headbands already, but entrelac looks wicked- like wovens strands of knitted material but it's actually knitted all in one piece. 

I read the whole pattern before I started, I've been stung enough times before to know you should always read the pattern first. 

However I have to tell you, for an entrelac pattern, I wouldn't waste your time reading the pattern. Seriously I couldn't make head nor tail of it. So I decided it would be best to not try and understand it. Just cast on and blindly follow the instructions. But I'm a curious soul, I don't like magic happening on my knitting needles when I can't understand how it's happening. 

So I watched a couple of tutorials to get my head round it. If you're not a nosey so and so like me, just follow the instructions like I said, you'll be fine. However here's the tutorial I watched, I found it really useful.

This one is by the knitting video geniuses over at Very Pink, I love the videos on here. This tutorial is about how to knit this pretty scarf by Allison LoCicero. But the skills and tips are the same. 

So, here's my tips for following an entrelac pattern: if you want the lovely blocks of colours use a yarn that has long stripes of different colours (Such as King Cole Riot) rather then swapping yarn all the time. If there is anything at all you're unsure of youtube it, I double checked for example how to pick up stitches, as it is used alot throughout entrelac. It is mportant to follow the pattern rigidly, but don't let the long list of instructions put you off. You will get it after a couple of tiers, but it's difficult to understand to begin with. I usually play around with patterns, but I definately wouldn't risk it with entrelac, I don't know it well enough.

Final tip- just go for it! It's wicked fun, and looks so impressive. What have you got to loose? You can always unravel it and start again. So, no more shying away from beautiful patterns because you're unsure of the technique, deal? :)

Here's a few suggestions of follow-up free projects to try out once you've mastered it. 

Entrelac Messenger Bag by Joanne Loh

Tenney Park Jumper by Elizabeth Morrison

Entrelac Hat by Lorraine J Major

Much love,

HanaLou