u/PuzzleheadedOil8826

In honor of fat bear week

I know they're not dogs :p

I’m a new knitter- started last December but love it and am pretty adventurous. My first ever intarsia project- it’s for my son for his birthday- he chose this design by Degen and yarn - but i was happy to learn intarsia, it’s been on my list of techniques to acquire. The yarn he chose is Drops Fiesta - superwash- never used it before. All my knitting so far has been with ordinary wool yarn.

I knit this while taking breaks from researching and writing my dissertation- hoping it will help keep me sane!

I was really struggling trying to learn intarsia at first but got some advice here and the Tin Can knits webpage on simple intarsia has helped me make a breakthrough. Her ‘old colour above the new’ mnemonic really helped - so simple!!!

It’s my first time knitting with superwash wool and found it very slippery. It’s doesn’t grab on to itself and the other strands so my tension in the intarsia bits is pretty terrible!

After creating bobbins with cardboard and getting really frustrated I followed the advice of a number of people here who said just let the yarn flow and I did. Let me tell you it’s infinitely easier and I made much faster progress with a big tangle. Counterintuitive I know!!

When I finished I seamed it all up and wove in the gazillion ends.
I started on the neck and followed the pattern to pick up 70 or so stitches but it turned out terrible- too tight and spread out at the base. ripped that out and picked up around 100 stitches and it worked much better.
A quick wash on a delicates setting (the advantage of superwash) and it fits perfectly! He loves it so that’s great. I would like to adapt the intarsia design and try it again with better yarn- maybe a Christmas present.

So what I learned doing my first intarsia;

1. don’t use superwash wool in colourwork as it’s slippery
2. don’t use bobbins - embrace the chaos and the massive tangle
3. don’t be afraid to make the design chunkier if possible- I would have made the stems 4 stitches wide if I was doing it again- this would really improve my stitch tension. And use duplicate stitches for fiddley bits
4. Tincan knits webpage on simple intarsia really helped me get the technique into my brain

So I’m a pretty confident beginner knitter, have knitted a few jumpers and vests with raglan and saddle shoulders, stranded colourwork cardigan and vest, ladderback jacquard, cutting steeks, cables - lots of knitting fun! I absolutely love knitting and have been able to do all those techniques that I attempt. Until now.

I offered to knit my son a jumper for his birthday and he chose the tulip pullover by Lindsay Deegan. It has intarsia on the front and sleeves and I agreed to do it as I wanted to learn about how to do intarsia colourwork. I thought I would knit a big swatch first to try and learn how to do it.

But I’m finding it really difficult to absorb. I have watched lots of videos and step by step tutorials on intarsia for beginners but for some reason they don’t make sense to me and I keep getting things wrong. My knitting ends up being a snarled wrong side mess. It may be that most guides are done by people who do continental style knitting- I find it hard to imagine when the knitting hands are reversed or something.

I have never found any of the techniques I have learned so far as hard as this - I usually get the basics very quickly and then improve through practice.

Here’s my plea to this community - are there any foolproof resources online for someone who does English style knitting to learn intarsia? Though videos are helpful I find step-by-step guides better as I have to stop and start the videos as I try each step. But videos too - I will try anything. Any resources that really helped you go “ahh that’s how it’s done” when trying to learn intarsia. Many thanks in advance 🙏

I was inspired to post this in support of an earlier post on the same subject.

Cars parked in cycle lanes cause so many issues when I’m cycling. I’ve had more near misses because of bad parking in cycle lanes than anything else. Here’s a few examples from my home town of Bray.

I was cycling home on a painted cycle lane up Putland Road in Bray. A house was getting renovated and two vans were parked on the cycle lane (the last photo is a couple of days later at the same house) I looked behind, could see a car a fair bit away behind so indicated with my arm to the right and pulled out onto the road. The car behind me beeped madly at me. There was loads of room, and he could see the vans as much as I could! Shouted at me as he passed! I think it was because I wasn’t cycling fast as it’s uphill.

I’m a pretty careful but confident cyclist, not bombing around and running red lights (mid-50s woman, been cycling for over 30 years). I’m also a driver, as are most cyclists tbh, so see things from both sides.

But I still can’t work out why drivers feel the need to see us as enemies. If I was stuck in traffic for a couple of hours a day I would be delighted to have as many cyclists on the road as possible- fewer cars! I’d be falling over myself to make them feel safe and encouraged!!! I would be thanking every cyclist for keeping another car off the road!!!!

Anyway, eejits parking - blocking people and cyclists.

This took me over 2 months but I really enjoyed it - the wave cardi! https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wave-cardi

Many firsts for me since I started knitting last December - first big project, first colourwork, first steek, first arms! It was smaller than I expected (only 2 sizes and I did the bigger) so I added an extra wave at the end of the body and part wave on the sleeves and left out most of the decreases on the sleeves.

I also ran out of my teal yarn so used a reddish brown colour for the extra waves. I used Galliat by De Rerum Natura and I absolutely love the bounce and colours. It’s my second project with it (I did a vest) and I’m officially obsessed, though it is quite pricey.

I’m very much a ‘good enough’ knitter so there are a few minor colourwork mistakes in there - perfectionist knitters please avert your eyes! But I love it, I’m trying to get as much wear out of it before it’s too warm and it will be a wardrobe staple from autumn onwards!

I can’t believe I knitted something I love so much!!!!