Skeinspotting

Fair Isle WIP is a UFO
Fair Isle February Project

Well I finished part of an Ear Flap Chullah style hat, but I don't like the designs on there and there is too much pink going on. I do think that the drugs that I am on that cause confusion and indecision make an impact when I am trying to use colour. they make me hop from project to project as well.

Also,I need to pay more attention to the perfect amount of stretch to put on a Fair Isle Hat as you want it snug but overstretching can make the stranding look a bit wobbly.

This is all basic stuf that I forget when I have been away from colour work. Thanks to Fair Isle February I am well and truly giving myself a kick in the behind! I bet when I go back to my textured work (WIPing and UFOing in a bag) I will have forgotten how to place cables and bobbles on my purl wedges!

I gave up knitting this hat after the first ear flap (2nd ear flap syndrome?) and feel sort of flustered as I only have the rest of today and tomorrow to complete 'personal' projects before more desk work (pattern checking) comes in. I dream of having leaisure time to knit what I want, and when I am busy have so many ideas but when the leisure time comes, I just mess around and get nothing useful done!

However, part of my messing around this time was to familiarise myself with charts and think about how I would design a Tam. I did know that I needed a wedge, but couldn't for the life of me decide how that wedge would fit together to make the points of a star or other top central pattern. It sort of clicked though when I realised that all I had to do was divide my top into quarters, fifths, sixths, sevenths or eighths and just design around the centre stitch. Working from the centre out would probably be the best sort of thing.

You can see some sort of wedge thing going on with my hand drawn chart. where the decreases start every other row, I jotted down the number of stitches in that part of the repeat and total number of stitches in case I wanted to stick a peerie around that band. It was easier to think in terms of repeats per band but further up a single motif centred in each wedge would be best.

Now I might go off and have a go at a mohair beret, something simple to knit in the evenings whilst relaxing after pattern checking. Meli my new knitter and knitting buddy has knitted a few mohair berets and although they are very simple in design, they do look beautiful on the head and don't squash the freshly washed hair at all.

A perfect example of a fusion of form and function. I sometimes forget that part of knitting is being able to make personal garments. A lot of stuff I have designed is not for me to wear and looking around, there is definitely a call for simple clear patterns to get people making their own clothes.