Fair Isle Adventure

While I am working on my first level of KIC, I have to watch for classes that will help me achieve the second level when I am ready to work on it.

So I perused the offerings at my LYS's and found two classes close to home, at Knitter's Kove, one for a Fair Isle hat and the other for an Intarsia pillow top.

The Fair Isle class started Saturday and all we concentrated on for those two hours was the long-tail cast-on in two colors. For the first hour we puzzled and struggled with the cast-on. Finally everyone seemed to grasp the concept and get the required stitches on the needles, then we joined without a twist, with much discussion of moebius. Our homework assigment is to knit an inch and a half of two color ribbing in a two by two configuration. Does not sound hard on the one page pattern, however the purling with the second color in the round while I am trying to learn the two-handed technique has proven challenging. Our final class this Saturday is to learn how to read a graph and knit to it. Looks a little like cross stitch to me. The pattern we are doing is a hat with an aspen leaf motif. I am doing it in purple and gray (the picture does not show that very well, I will try to get a better one later) Plymouth Yarn Encore. It is 75% acrylic and 25% wool. Feels cozy warm yet is washable, a nice feature for a hat.

The class is not being taught as a two-handed class. That is my own desire to learn how to do it like it is shown on the Philosopher's Wool website.

So I have two more rows of homework to do on this hat then I am practicing the two color cast on for a sampler purse (pattern on PW site) and practice the two-handed method.

The instructor told us that they do not teach Fair Isle very often so I am glad I happened to catch it when I did.

While I am working on swatches and class homework I have embellished and shipped a surprise gift to a friend whose name and location will remain nameless until I am certain it has arrived.

And how does Pedro feel about all this fiber massaging that I am doing morning and evening...well, he is more interested in massaging his couch blanket and visiting with his fish buddy to be bothered by my clicking needles.

Hope you are following your dreams, spending time with the important people (and critters) in your life and staying warm this winter.