Certainly Fair Isle, or stranded knitting, is one of the most beloved of color knitting techniques. One of the fun secrets about it is that using only two colors per row and cleverly changing them you can create rich tapestries of fabric that look a lot more complicated than they really are. Enjoy!
Tag: Incredible Sweater Machine
Color on the BOND-Part 3: More Fair Isle and Weaving in Floats
There is a beloved Scandinavian pattern of scattered, single stitches of a different color called “Little Lice” or “Little Birds.” You’ll recognize it when you see it. This technique can leave long “floats,” the yarn lengths between the contrast color stitches. Fortunately, you can “catch” those floats behind other stitches to make them more manageable.
Color on the BOND-Part 4: Intarsia or Picture Knitting
Another very popular color technique is intarsia or “picture knitting.” The wire fabric guide on the carriage of the original BOND machine made this technique very messy to knit. Yarns got tangled and it was tough to keep things sorted out. To solve this problem, I developed the “Improved Rube-Goldberg, Spare Parts Intarsia Technique” that… Continue reading Color on the BOND-Part 4: Intarsia or Picture Knitting
Color on the BOND-Part 5: Combining Color Techniques
In this last of the installments of “Color on the BOND” you learn to recognize combined techniques and how to combine them yourself. If you’re wondering why it took me 24 “movies” or separate uploads to YouTube to put up three classes it’s because YouTube has a limit to how long your movie can be––… Continue reading Color on the BOND-Part 5: Combining Color Techniques
Your First BOND Sweater-Part 1: Introduction
I’m an old high school English teacher. Well, that is . . . I’m old(ish) and I was a high school and middle school English teacher for a number of years. Thus, I build “lesson plans” rather than demonstrate random, isolated skills. The reason I chose, all those years ago, to design this course was… Continue reading Your First BOND Sweater-Part 1: Introduction
Your First BOND Sweater-Part 2 Mark the Armholes
This is a quick and easy technique that you can apply to many situations. Any time you need to mark a row in order to attend to it later, think of this.
Your First BOND Sweater-Part 3: Shape Shoulders and Back of Neck
This is a review of the short-row shoulder shaping you saw in “Meet Your BOND,” and it bears repeating. You need 6 to 12 exposures to a new concept, word, and/or skill in order to “own it” as part of your internalized skill set. And this is a plain dandy thing to know. People are… Continue reading Your First BOND Sweater-Part 3: Shape Shoulders and Back of Neck
Your First BOND Sweater-Part 4: Complete Back, then Front to Neckline
This is a quick bit of directions. You’ve already seen the techniques. Now quick! Repeat them in rapid succession to help cement your learning.
Your First BOND Sweater-Part 5: Crew-neck Shaping
For the first time in this series we meet the neck shaping of the front of a sweater. I was on a kick of doing the “Cheap Nordic Skiwear” version of decreases back then. Nowadays I do the non-CNSE (Cheap Nordic Skiwear Effect) version. This is a new combination of skills in the series. Enjoy… Continue reading Your First BOND Sweater-Part 5: Crew-neck Shaping
Meet Your BOND-Part 5: Decreases
The Knitting Decrease Whether you are hand knitting or knitting on a machine, there are several variables you need to consider when you make decreases. And do not, for one minute, assume that the designer of any given pattern is giving the “perfect advice” for you or for your finishing down the line on this… Continue reading Meet Your BOND-Part 5: Decreases