Inside Information

I thought I would show you the inside of CPS and how I am weaving in my ends.

As you can see, it's a bit different than the inside of Checkers. For Checkers, I wove in along the purl bumps and color joins with minimal distortion on the right side. That didn't work for this design and with this yarn?there was too much distortion of the stitches. I had to find a different way to weave in the ends.

I had previously purchased a copy of Intarsia: A Workshop for Hand & Machine Knitting, a book produced by Sealed With a Kiss, Inc. I read it at the time I got it, but then put it on the shelf because the techniques they described didn't seem necessary for the design I was working on at the time. In fact, for another intarsia design I've done these techniques would have been almost impossible given the characteristics of the yarn. However, when it came to figuring out what to do for this design, this booklet provided some real help. Most knitting reference books give details about twisting the yarns to avoid gaps in intarsia, but almost none give any specific guidance about weaving in the ends.

To weave in ends for this design I'm taking a small tapestry needle and weaving the ends on the back though individual plies of the yarn along a diagonal. I weave about four stitches and then turn back and weave in the other direction. This yarn is pretty sticky and I don't expect that the ends will be working loose any time soon, but this will make extra sure that they don't.

Sometimes it feels like I'm the only knitter who actually enjoys doing intarsia. I wouldn't like to have to do it exclusively, but I like to add it in the mix. I do get tired of all the knitters who tell me, "I hate intarsia, I'll never do it". And I should care...why? I understand, it's not for everyone. I don't like all intarsia designs. Frankly, I'm horrified by designs like these, but some of these are pretty cool and Jo Sharp and Mission Falls have some other designs that interest me. And of course there are some of those early Kaffe Fassett designs from Glorious Knits and Kaffe's Classics. [I can't say I'm inspired by his more recent designs though].

And as tedious as intarsia seems to some, I don't mind it. I weave in every couple of rows as I go and I find it as engrossing and relaxing as the knitting itself. For me, this isn't any worse than twisting a cable and certainly better than making bobbles. [Ugh]. I've said it before, I actually like fiddlely crafts. I could probably get into something like building a ship in a bottle or painting on grains of rice.