…knitting
Fair Isle. Gotcha! Man, I bet there are going to be a lot of people mad at me.
Back
in September, after I was certain I had mastered the knit and purl stitch, I
decided I needed something more challenging to work on. I also decided that
after nearly a decade of friendship I should give best friend #2 a birthday gift.
[Sidenote: Facebook and its ability to remind me of people’s birthdays have
made my life a lot easier. If you’re muttering "D’bag" right now I
don’t blame you.]I then determined that I would knit her a hat, in Fair Isle
and since she is an awesome Navy wife I would do anchors and waves.
It
was ambitious and challenging. It fought me, dirty style, with low-blows and
there was name-calling. Yet, I prevailed. I won. And wound up with a
beautifully knit hat. Observe:
I
watched several tutorials on how to hold both strands of yarn and learned quite
a bit about dominant colors when knitting Fair Isle. I also promptly
disregarded all the suggestions and worked out my own system of managing my
yarns. You will need the following to work Shannon’s Fair Isle method:
One
Raverly pattern found here- http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mariners-hat
A
super comfy chair placed in your living room
Poor
lighting
One
small Border Terrier named Lucy. This is essential to the process as one of the
skeins of yarn has to be wedged between her and the chair.
One
printer that will not print out your knitting patterns
A
computer you can download said pattern to and will go to sleep every 15 minutes
while you try to follow the pattern
Finally,
one boyfriend who will hesitantly suggest every hour that you find a less
stressful hobby. Preferably one that his mother doesn’t do.
Once
assembled, wedge your dominant yarn skein between Lucy and the back of the
chair. Run the yarn over your right shoulder keeping that tension tight! Place
your second color on the ottoman in front of you between your cigarettes, phone
(which is doubling as a row counter), 72 remote controls, and a pack of cookies
for stress eating when you run out of cigarettes. Start following
your pattern remembering to stick your tongue out between your lips so you can
concentrate.
Three
days later, you will have a fantastic hat that is slightly too big, can be
photographed poorly in your kitchen and has one mistake in it.
I’ve
never been prouder.
Great hat!! Your assistant Lucy is very helpful!
ReplyDeleteShe does come in handy from time to time. Seriously though, she likes to lay either on the yarn or likes it running across her body. Lol. She's like a cat.
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