Wednesday, October 04, 2006

One of my new found knitting resources is Knitty.com. It is a free online magazine that also has its own message boards. It's a place for knitters to meet, swap tips about knitting, spinning, dyeing, and life in general. It also has a nice little market place for swapping of supplies and whatnot. Ok, so there's the intro.

This past weekend I was cruising the boards and found a post labeled "Intarsia=Hell". I thought, hey, I like instarsia! I even did it as my second project ever! Hey, guys, don't forget, I am a masochistic knitter...my first project was socks. So, I check it out and see that our friend is frustrated over the million of ends to weave in. I sympathize...I hate it too.

I mention that I was taught by the lovely Terri Rank of Shaggy Sheep Yarn a technique on weaving them in as you go. They were ECSTATIC!! So, I said I would post a small tutorial with pictures. So, here you are fellow knitters!!


Ah, the beginning...here I have knit a bit in black and am switching to pastels. Hey, it was what was handy, ok? I have just attached my next yarn and taken that first stitch and am holding up my tails to be woven in in my hand.

The tails are flipped toward you IN BETWEEN THE LEFT NEEDLE AND WORKING YARN!! Why it that is CAPS? Because it is very important, as you will see later. You then wrap your yarn, over the ends, and finish your stitch.

Flip the ends back down, over the working yarn. Again, wrap your yarn, over the ends, and finish the stitch.

This continues until the ends are woven in "enough". Just keep flipping the tail ends up and down in between stitches. This will be easy for knitters who can carry one yarn in each hand and carry one behind as you go. Same principle.

So, the important part was in CAPS, right? So, what happens if you mess that up? Basically, if you put the tails on the LEFT side of the needle, it gets knitted into the stitch and it looks like you have a two stitch increase.

I hope this helps people and if you need any clarifications, post a comment or send an email. Good luck!!

1 comment:

Speckel said...

Hey! Thanks for this tutorial. I haven't tried colorwork before, but when I finally get around to it this will help for sure.