More sitting time this morning at my moms' group, which means more knitting time, and as I was progressing on the Hardangervidda sleeve, I was reminded of this hat which I started when we were at Stitches several years ago.
Do you know what the Hardangervidda and this hat have in common (well, aside from the fact that they are both patterns by Dale of Norway.....) ? (And by the way, whoa! Not sure what is going on with the colors of the hat, but it is really more of a maroon color, and there is no purple in it, really!) In any case, here is a hint:
How many colors of stitches are showing on the needle holding the stitches?I wonder if the folks at Dale of Norway are so sinister that they sit around saying to each other, in big shot staff meetings and design releases, something like this:
Big Shot 1: Beautiful sweater!
Big Shot 2: Thank you. It has at least three colors in it.
Big Shot 1: Yes, I noticed...and were you able to throw in at least a row or two which calls for all three colors in the same row? You don't need many rows like that, of course, but please make certain that there are at least one or two of them. I love how it can stop knitters dead in their tracks. In case the huge color charts aren't scary enough, this "three colors in a row" thing will emphasize that our designs can be a bit complicated...
Not sure how many times I tried to knit that one row. I was carrying two colors in my left hand (with middle finger separating the strands, and both strands going over my index finger) and one color in my right hand. On the first attempt, I forgot to put in the increases called for at both ends of the row. On the second attempt, I had only a few more stitches to go when my four year old called from the bathroom, "Mommy, would you help me with my poop?" When I returned to my knitting, I realized that my row was totally messed up and had to be taken out again. Anyway, at some point I got the row done correctly and am now ready to move on. There is only one row which has three colors in each sleeve, and only two for the body of the sweater. What is up with that? Really, is this some kind of a joke? Or, perhaps I should just be thankful that over 99% of the rows have no more than two colors...
Well, the mail is here and the kitchen is a mess, so it's time to get back to work.
Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)
3 comments:
Don't let her fool you: the sleeve is looking wonderful.
Obviously those devious Norwegians never learned the first rule of Fair Isle knitting: Never more than 2 colors in one row. The Norwegians sometimes use these little things that look like a spring on a ring, which they strand the different colors through and can then easily pick the one they want. I've seen it in action, but never used one myself.
It looks fantastic.
I think it might well be some psychology grad student's experiment on knitters :)
Big grin, and I salute you. That's going to be one gorgeous sweater. I keep thinking that one of these days I will actually try three colors in one row....
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