Posted under Fair Isle & Gifts and Charity
The very same day I was finished with the pink and black gloves (I really need a better name for them,) I cast on for a new pair of gloves. Of course they’re from Selbuvotter. I’m not sure who these gloves will end up going to, but I do have a quite a long list of family and friends that are in need of warm hands on the mainland.
What makes the current gloves different is that I decided to use three colors instead of the two used in the book. Why did I decide to do that? Well, it’s all Lisa’s fault.
She asked me if there were any patterns in the book that called for three colors. When I said no, she and I noticed that it would be fun (ha!) to add in a third color to the patterns. The idea wouldn’t leave me alone, so I decided to give it a try.
Once that decision was made, I consulted Shelly, my co-conspirator in all things bordering on the insane, on whether or not I had the technique right in my head. Turns out I did have it right, so it was time to knit akamai!
(Basically you just weave in the third color when ever you’re not using it. See this site for a good how-to. It might not work for Firefox users. Break out the evil IE.)
So I plunged right in with the two contrasting colors in my right hand or my non-dominant hand and the main color in my left hand or my dominant hand.
I cannot tell you how tedious it was to maneuver three different strands of yarn while trying to keep an even tension. Since I’m left-handed, my right-hand rarely gets a work-out, so I pretty much killed it while working on this glove.
There was much cursing involved, but I knit through the pain despite the warnings given dictated by common sense. All the while, I worried that this third color would look completely incongruous and that it would break up the symmetry of the pattern or some such notice. In other words, I was afraid that it would turn out ass ugly.
I’m still undecided as to how it looks, but I think that might be because of the pastel colors. I’m just not a fan of the pastel and it generally biases my opinion. So I’m withholding judgment until the fingers are done.
I’ve heard that Latvian knitters sometimes use four or five colors on one row? If that’s true, I would bow down to their supreme knitty talents and I would also like them to teach me how to do it without breaking my hand.
