....Intarsia........

......These last few days i have been trying to master the art of Intarsia.....i have this dream that one day i shall be able to knit fairisle garments and lots of wonderful colourful blocks and motifs.....but i new that there was no way of conquering this rather tricky skill without starting at the bottom..........so i got myself a book (like you do) and had a go at Intarsia......................
For you who don't know what this is, it a form of knitting motifs without carrying the yarn across the back of the fabric, in this method you are twisting the yarn upwards as opposed to across..........let me show you.......................

....This is a pocket that i cut out of an old Amano cardigan sometime ago and crocheted around the edge of it to just make a simple mat......and it just so happened that this motif was done in Intarsia..............

.....this is the back, and the yarn goes round the outside edge of the motif instead of across......

......here's the cardigan i cut it out from.....

....can you see the swan motif still attached to the cargy, i also did the same with the other motifs too......this was actually the left overs of a previous project that i did with this cardigan.......do you want to see........................

.....this is the bag that i made from the cardigan.........the cardy had a lot of pictures on it but it was all a bit too busy for me so i completely chopped it up and made it into something more useful......a bag...

...........here's the back view......

......i love this bag, and i have used it a lot.....its all lined inside too.....

.......anyway back to Intarsia......

.......There is another thing when knitting motifs...........all the different colours you use get in an abominable knot..........so.....you need to use bobbins.........these still get a bit tangled up and i very nearly flung my knitting across the room a few times......but i persevered and here's my attempt......

.....not brilliant by a long shot....but i shall keep trying until i can knit one of these with a bit more speed and less mistakes.......i don't generally make mistakes when i am knitting but with all the bobbins and stuff hanging down the back of the piece i couldn't help but drop the odd stitch or get a knot in another.....

......If you fancy getting in knots with yarn...here's the book that i highly recommend to do this......

.....this is a very inspiring book and Nicki has a lovely blog site too.....

.......Anyhoo... that's all from me for today.....and who knows maybe in about seventy years time i might be able to show you something i have knitted in fairisle...x.x.x

.....Pixie...x