Hot Diggety!

I only have 22 rows left of the Fair Isle Bag. It's moving along pretty fast now. I was able to work on it quite a bit today since it was my day off. Here is a picture of the progress.

Sorry about the ugly picture. The stockinette is curling up badly and there are 20,000 ends that need to be weaved in hiding under it. I don't think Rob knew what he was getting himself into when he agreed to weave them for me. Muhahahahaha!

PS
I also worked on the Sweater Pattern List today, and I now have 191 links!

Keep On Keepin' On

I completed the main chart on the bag after work today. (Thanks so much for the compliments) That means I only have 38 more rows left! That's totally managable. I am going to have lots of time to work on it tomorrow, and I'll post pictures of the progress tomorrow evening. I need to hunt some more sweater patterns too. Right now my eyelids are getting very heavy, so I'm gonna go get my butt in bed. See you tomorrow. Have a wonderful day :)

Ouuuuch!

I was incapable of blogging, knitting, sitting up, or anything last night after work. Unfortunately when I arrived home  I was accompanied by a blinding migraine. Have you ever suffered from one of those? They are no picnic I tell you what. Mine start out by making me dizzy then slowly but surely my brain begins to split. I become nauseous, and yesterday I was seeing spots!  The only thing I can do is take something and lay down in a dark room. Thank God I don't get these very often. I think I would go insane.

Speaking of insane, Christmas is in FOURTY DAYS! How did it sneak up so fast? Is it the warm weather fooling me? Is it denial?  Whatever the heck it is I have a bag to finish for my mother in law, a hat and scarf for my sister, an Eeyore for my nephew, and the list goes on! Can you say impossible? 

So now what? How is it possible to finish in time? Unless, I magically sprout another set of hands, I'll never finish on time. My good friend Janette had a great idea to help take some of my anxiety away. You simply figure out aproximately how many rows you have left of the project so you know how many you need to knit a night. I have 68 rows left on my Fairisle Bag. I could finish it in two weeks if I knit five rows a day. That realization makes me want to kick myself in the butt for not finishing it already. I guess I ought to cut myself a break since I work full time and teach at the store. I don't have a ton of free time.


Enough excuses! I'm going to get this bag finished in less than 2 weeks if it kills me! Tonight I knit seven rows which puts me ahead of schedule. Here is the progress so far. Go Stacie Go!!

And here is a close up of the bottom of the bag.

Lessons Learned

Let me first say in my defense that I am a TOTAL beginner at this whole Fair Isle thing. I know there is at least a couple of people reading that are with me on this. I will now save those people from making the same mistake I did.  Friends don't let friends make dorky mistakes :)

Do you know that when you read a chart while knitting flat not in the round, you read it from right to left, left to right, right to left, and so on? Well if you do, you are one up on me my friend. I have never read a chart in my life. It didn't specifically state in the pattern to read the pattern this way, so I just read it right to left, right to left, right to left... Luckily the main pattern still worked out. I guess that if it hadn't worked out, I would have figured out I was doing something wrong. Well actually I don't guess, I know. I found out that I was screwing up when I got to a part of the chart, and it just wasn't looking right. Rip rip rip knit knit knit, and it still didn't look right.

Me: "Janette what the haites am I doing wrong? Is this chart wrong? This should look like this, and it doesn't?"

Janette: "No the chart looks right to me."

Me: "Well something can't be right this is supposed to have brown stripes, but I'm not getting brown stripes"

Janette: "Yeah it looks like the chart will give you brown stripes"

Me: "But I'm not getting brown stripes"

Janette: "How are you reading your chart? Are you reading it right to left then left to right?"

Me: "Huh???"

I was lucky that the mistake didn't mess up the main design of the bag. It did however mess up the sides, but noone is going to notice it but me. I'm gonna suck it up and leave the mistake. There is no way I'm ripping it out. It's not like it looks bad. It's just different from the chart.

Well there ya have it. Thank God for Janette, or I would have been bashing my brains out over that one. So folks, learn from my screw up. If you have never read a chart before, remember when you are knitting flat you work the chart starting at the bottom. On the first row you read it right to left, and on the next row you read left to right.

To Pioggia

Pioggia wrote:

As always, you provide very useful links indeed, thank you. Do you happen to have a picture of the wrong side of your fair-isle bag? I'd like to take a closer look before attempting fair-isle myself. Thanks!


Pioggia,

You are very welcome. This is all a learning experience for me, and if I can help someone out then it makes it all the better. Plus if anyone other than just me learns from my mistakes then I don't feel so bad about screwing up! Haha!

The internet was a God send for me when I was learning to knit. I didn't know a single person that knew how, so I had to figure it all out for myself. From day one the internet has been an incredible resource, and it continues to be to this day. One day I hope to be the creator of such wonderful websites and the originator of the tips and hints :)  I love having a way to share the useful information that I find out there in the great big world wide web! I'm a great googler (hehe is that a new word?), and my husband says that if it is out there I'll find it.

As requested, here is a picture of the back of my bag. Just click on the image for a larger view.

Oh what the heck I'll throw in a shot of the front too.

 

I just started the bottom of the bag during my knitting group meeting yesterday morning. Another great lesson was learned, ie. I screwed up bigtime, but I'll save that lesson for my next post. I wish you the best of luck on your first colorwork project. Keep me posted :)

Happy Knitting,
Stacie

Another Bag Update

Here is another update on my bag. I realized that I have been showing it upside down in all of the other images. The bag is knit starting at the top of one side, across the bottom, and back up the other side so this is the way it should be shown.

The striped part up at the top will be folded over for the strap to be threaded through. As you can see the green is showing up against the blue background. I'm really glad about that because I didn't feel like buying anymore yarn for this project. Here is a close up shot of the green.

Well there it is :) What do you think? Do you think the green shows up well enough? I only have about 13 more rows left on this chart, and I will start on the bottom! I'm moving on along slowly but surely.

Lorraine's Question

Lorraine wrote:

WOW! If you're fairly new at Fair Isle knitting, you're doing a FABULOUS job. I'd love to make a bag like it. Can you tell me where you got the pattern?

Thanks Lorraine!! Actually this is my first attempt at Fair Isle, and I am loving it to peices!! The pattern that I am using is from the Summer 2004 Interweave Knits Magazine. If it is no longer available in stores you can go to the Interweave website and order it. This issue also features an excellent article on the different ways to hold strands of yarn while knitting with two colors. I found it very informative. If you are totally new to Fair Isle check out the Philosper's Wool video or the Knitting In Color blog. They are both wonderful resources and were very helpful for me. Nanette from Knitting in Color has a book for sale that teaches Fair Isle techniques and all the profits go to pet rabbit rescue. I hope this info is helpful. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Knitting :)

Fair Isle Bag

I have not foresaken the Fair Isle Bag. I'm still working on it. I had a problem with the color of green that I was using, but I think that I have it taken care of. At first I was using Forest Green Heather but as I said it nearly disappeared into the Blue Mist. I went with a lighter green, Loden. After I got that taken care of, I ended up ripping out about ten rows after deciding that the yellow was way too bright in one section of the bag. I wasn't being a crazy perfectionist this time. Rob totally agreed with me. It was like the yellow just screamed LOOK AT ME!! and that was not what I was going for. Soooo Instead of using the Pastel Yellow, I am going to use Camel.

I casted on my Keyhole Tank Friday during my knitting group. I learned something from that experience. Never cast on while in the presence of good friends :) I couldn't stop chatting long enough to count past fifty stitches. I love love love getting together with those ladies. They are my only friends here. I tell them that they get a week's worth of my gibber jabber in a couple of hours. I don't know what I would do without them!

I don't have enough progress on either project to show, but I do have something else to bring for show and tell....

It's Hawkeye knitting! I was so excited when I saw it that I grabbed my camara and snapped a picture. I thought maybe you would get as much of a kick out of it as I did :) I'm not sure what he is working on. All I could tell was that he was knitting right handed with  a peachish color yarn, and he has a basket with several balls of yarn in his lap. He was doing a pretty good job too. He wasn't just pretending. I wish that I could have gotten a better picture.

Progress

 

Here is my progress pictures. You can click on the images to enlarge them. I am very unhappy with the green yarn that I am using. I don't think that it stands out enough against the blue. Unfortunately I couldn't find a lighter green at the store, so I'll probably have to order some online.

A Change

I made another change to the blog. I don't know if you noticed it or not. I took a photograph of myself and then played around with it in Paint Shop. What do you think? I think I like it better than the drawing I did of Zoe and I.

I am still working on my Fair Isle Bag. I have finally made it to the main chart of the design. Is it weird to be so excited about knitting?? Haha! I can barely make myself put down the needles long enough to go to bed or clean my house! Thank God my husband is the one that does all the cooking or we would probably starve to death!

Progress

Here is my progress so far. You can click on the image to view it at a larger size.

So what do you think? Does it look good so far? I have been using the Philosopher Wool method of weaving in the ends as I go so that I don't have any floats. They didn't show how to weave in the Purl stitches, but I played around with it until I figured it out. Here is the back of the bag.




I would love any input on my progress good or bad. I take constructive criticism very well :) In my opinion I think it is pretty good for a first attempt at Fair Isle.

Obsessed Much

It is 2am and I am still up knitting. Do you think I might be a little obsessed? Haha! I am really enjoying Fair Isle knitting! I can hardly make myself put it down. I love the challenge of learning something new. I got a little burned out with all the darn Stockinette on Just (not) Peachy, and I am totally welcoming this non-mindless knitting. I'm already on the hunt for my next Fair Isle project. My husband is still tripping out over my new endeavor. You would think that I was knitting up golden fiber. It makes me feel good that he has taken such an interest in my knitting, and it makes me wish that I had taken up Fair Isle sooner! He told me that he would love to have a sweater, so we have been looking for a pattern he likes. Well folks, I'm going to carry my tired hind parts to bed now! I'll posts pictures of my progress when I get up. Night!

Bag Update

I got an email from the Assistant Editor of Interweave Knits answering my questions about the Fair Isle Bag. I am really impressed with the fast response. She said that the pattern is right and the color change lines are supposed to be there. If I wanted to get rid of the lines I could change it to a knitted garter stitch instead of a purl garter stitch. I have decided to go ahead and stick to the pattern. I actually think that it is looking pretty good so far. I took a close up shot of it so that you can see the lines better. Also, after further inspection of the pattern I realized that the top edges of the bag are going to get folded to the inside to form a casing for the strap. You won't really see this part anyways. Go figure.

Knit Along

I have decided that the knitalong isn't just going to be for the Fair Isle Bag anymore. It is simply going to be a Fair Isle Knitalong. It doesn't matter what project we are doing as long as it is a Fair Isle project. For example, I am going to knit the Fair Isle Bag, and Janette is knitting the Fair Isle Pillow from the Spring Interweave. Her pillow is really looking awesome! I will probably post a picture of it on here, if she'll let me. Anyone at all can join this knitalong, and if you want me to post pictures of your progress just let me know.

I started my bag today. I misinterpreted the pattern at first and I had to rip it out after only few rows. I'm glad I caught it quick. Now it seems that I have ran across another issue. I don't know if it is something I'm doing, a design flaw, or just supposed to be that way. The pattern starts out with a purl garter stitch. Ok no problem I can handle that. What I don't understand is why the pattern calls for a color change while purling on a RS row. This makes that ugly color change line instead of a clean transition from one stripe to the next. For example the chart might look like this...OOOOXXXX. Rows 1, 3, and 5 are all RS rows, and the color change happens on a RS row. I looked online for corrections, and there aren't any. Is it possilbe she wants the ugly line? Am I reading this wrong? I give up for now. I need to go to bed.

The Yarn

Pictured above is the yarn I am going to be using on my Fair Isle Bag. Unfortunately, it doesn't really show the true color of the yarn, but you get the idea. I think that they work well with each other, and my total cost for all of the yarn was around ten dollars. You can't beat that!

I am getting really excited about starting the bag, but I'm not comfortable enough with my 2 color knitting ability to start it just yet. I am still practicing with the Sampler Purse, and I'm doing A LOT of reading. I am going to make a list of all the sites that I have been learning from and post them here later.

I have decided that I am going to hold one strand of yarn in each hand instead of both in my right. I came to this decision because of the Philosopher's Wool technique of weaving in the floats. I'm not really sure how to weave in the floats when they are both held in my right hand. Knitting continental is very awkward for me and I am worried that I will have a hard time purling with my left hand. My other concern is how to weave in the floats on the wrong side when you are purling. The Philosopher's Wool video only covers knitting not purling. I'm going to keep reading and practicing and eventually I'll start my bag. I'll keep you posted

The Colors

I finally figured out what colors of Woolease I want to use for my bag. I'm going to buy the rest when I go to work today. I am starting to get excited about this project now. I am going to go ahead and knit it flat instead of attempting to knit it in the round, but I am not going to make the front side and back side different colors. I think it will look better with both sides the same colors. I am going to finish Just Peachy before I start it. I figure I should scratch off at least one of my bazillion projects before I start a new one. I will post pictures of my color choices as soon as I have all of them.

Knit Along

I'm not sure how many people will be doing the knitalong now. I know that I am still going to go ahead with it even though the bag isn't knit in the round. I have been practicing and I think that I like holding both strands of yarn in my right hand. I think I will get better tension that way. I borrowed a Strickfingerhut (knitting thimble) from a friend in my group and it works well. I'm actually fine without it, but I like having little gadgets :) I ordered one, and I should get it pretty soon. I haven't bought all of the yarn for the project yet. Since I'm too poor for the yarn the pattern calls for, I am going to use Woolease. Actually I really like Woolease. It feels great, knits up really nice, and with my discount it is pretty darn cheap.

Fair Isle Bag KnitAlong

I met with my knitting group today and we discussed the knitalong. We figured out is that the front of the bag and the back of the bag are different. The colors aren't uniform going around the bag. It is knit flat from the top then you get to the bottom and start the other side all in one peice. As far as I can tell that is when it changes to the other color. You finish by folding it in half and sewing up the sides. This is why it will be difficult to convert. I'm sure we will figure out something. I use the term we loosely since I wouldn't even know where to start. Fortunately there are very experienced knitters in my group. I was thinking that maybe we could find a bag that is knit in the round and then apply the color pattern to it. I bet that Cindy could figure that out no problem. I'm going to run it by the group and see what they think.

Research

I haven't done any knitting in the last couple of days. Instead I have been looking up information on knitting with color. I have never attempted Fair Isle knitting. so I need all the help that I can get. I found a great video lesson on the Philosopher's Wool website. They also have a " sampler purse pattern" which they encourage people to practice the technique on. We aren't starting the knit along until around June 7th, so I will have time to play with the sampler pattern to get comfortable.