The Red Hat is Done, a Whole New Challenge

Oh boy, just when you think you've gotten good at something you've done a few times, something new comes along and bites you right in the rear. In this case, it was the design in this really cool hat.  It turns out that when you have a second color that goes all along the main color, the two strands carry along in the back without any problem. I also learned that "intarsia" and "Fair Isle" while similar, are actually two different terms. Fair Isle carries the design along the whole way and intarsia is a block of color design and is typically worked back and forth, not "in the round."

The first hats I made are Fair Isle

The red one has Fair Isle around the bottom and top; intarsia for the main logo and lettering:

Now that I google intarsia images, I see the backs of some designs have ends of yarn dangling on each row - that is an option I had not considered and still would not choose to do. Pulling in all those yarn ends does not seem like fun to me.  :)

The swatch I did ahead of time and showed a picture of on my previous blog entry was my attempt to be "prepared." I altered the edges just a bit as a result and thought I was ready for the real project. After I did the first row of the lettering on the hat, I had a sudden realization: The black yarn was left dangling on the left side of the design while I kept going around with the red background color and then the next time I would reach the design, the black would be on the wrong edge.

I googled: How To Knit Intarsia In The Round. First hit explained that it was not possible to knit intarsia in the round. Hmmm... let's see what else is out there...

Bingo!  The link I referred to: http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2008/02/tutorial-intars.html has a great description with plenty of photos to demonstrate what she is talking about. It was still pretty confusing until I just did what she said. Basically, you knit across with only one of the colors, slipping the stitches of the alternate color. At the end, you knit back with the alternate color, slipping the stitches of the ones already completed. Then, you slip all those completed stitches back onto your right hand needle and keep going at that place where you left off. Note: stitch markers come in incredibly handy because I kept forgetting exactly at which stitch I had started and stopped. Now the secondary color is waiting on the right hand side and is ready for you to do both colors on the next row, then the one after that, alternate the colors again.

Whew! I need a glass of wine...