Intarsia knitting and other stuff . . . :)

Life has been busy lately - not so much for me in a way, but for my boys sitting exams and I've not felt relaxed enough to blog or to take time out for commercial work.  That said I've been doing a lot of craft recently which (a) I've been finding very therapeutic and (b) very educational as I've learned a lot of different techniques in crochet and knitting of all sorts, some sock knitting of course too!

This last week I had a go at some intarsia knitting.  This differs from colour stranded/fair isle knitting as the different colours are left hanging and NOT stranded to the back.  I only found my self doing this after coming across a pattern for argyle socks . . . .

It's an old 1950s pattern for "The socks Mrs America loves to knit . . . . The socks Mr America loves to wear" - how funny is that!

The pattern instructed to wind all the different colours onto bobbins, so I did (two of each colour) . . ,

I used clothes pegs as bobbins so I could catch the yarn between the peg to secure it.

Here's how it looked after a few rows . . .

It didn't take long before I ditched the bobbins (which were a pain to use) and after a little research just cut long strands of yarn (for me that was about 125 cm long approx) which was easier to work with by just running my fingers through the yarns to untangle them - it speeded up things a lot :)

Here's the back . . .

All going well so far . . .

Seemingly Argyle socks are the 'holy grail' of knitting, hehe!  We'll see :) :)  I'll keep you posted off my progress . . . .

I've also been working on a new crochet afghan using this palette of colours (discontinued yarn so being sold cheaply) . . .

I think I chose moorland/heathery colours eg. rose heather, grey heather, etc. as I liked the idea of an afghan reflecting the flowers found on the moor.

Here's the blocks so far . . .

I've had to block them individually . . .

to get them nice and flat for joining . . . . it's working well (I don't always block squares but this time I had to).  I just pinned them to a makeshift blocking board and spritzed with water, leaving them to dry overnight.  Seems to do the trick.

The blocks weren't sitting flat enough so needed a little help - this yarn has 20% wool so maybe enough to help them block nicely.

This a nice relaxed background project for over the summer months . . .

I'm quite enjoying being methodical about them.  It's a lovely block to make from "100 Bright and colourful crochet squares" by Leonie Morgan.  I'm just making a block when I have time, interchanging the colour sequence, then blocking each one when I've finished.  I have some cream yarn for a nice border I hope :)  I'm using Lion Brand wool ease which is a worsted/light aran weight and 5.5 mm hook making a square about 5.75 inches (should be 6 inches but not with my crochet tension).  No rush with this project - purely relaxing and enjoyable!

The sewing machine has been a little dormant as it's been easier to pick up hooks and needles!

Beautiful sunny weather here in the Hebrides this week so we're all enjoying that.

Speak soon,
Alison x