A couple of months ago-- actually right around the time I "moved" to this blog-- Mom and I decided to sign up for a Craftsy class. They were having a sale, and we've been talking about modifying patterns for fit among ourselves, and it seemed like a really good idea; so we signed up for Fit Your Knits with Stefanie Japel. Between then and now, we haven't actually sat down to watch it, but I've gotten occasional emails from Craftsy and ended up signing up for two other classes on my own: Spinning Dyed Fibers with Felicia Lo (from Sweet Georgia Yarns) and The Fair Isle Vest: Stranded & Steeked with Mary Jane Mucklestone.
Both of these classes focus on color, although in two different ways, and they've convinced me that while I may still be hesitant about my own color sense that doesn't mean I should avoid it altogether!
Both of these classes focus on color, although in two different ways, and they've convinced me that while I may still be hesitant about my own color sense that doesn't mean I should avoid it altogether!
definitely NOT my picture. click for a link.
As a knitter, I've avoided anything more adventurous than stripes-- and I haven't even been willing to stripe anything other than scarves. For one thing, I love texture and I rationalized that I could happily knit cables and lace and textured stitches for the rest of my life and never feel like I was missing out on colorwork-- which is primarily in stockinette anyway. For another thing, I love hand-dyed yarn, so if I was ever craving color I could let the skein do the work for me. But the real reason I've avoided color is because I'm bad at it. I'm bad at the techniques involved, and I'm really horrid at choosing and matching colors. Growing up that latter piece seemed to make a kind of sense to me-- I'm relatively gifted in the traditional academic subjects, and it seemed "fair" that for balance I'm abysmal at sports and visual arts (and a number of other things, let's be clear... many of much more practical than school, like driving). So my knitting life, thus far, has been one of choosing one colorway per project and moving forward. I had a steep and unpleasant learning curve involving pooling and flashing in my beloved hand-dyed sock yarn, but after copious reading, I developed an understanding of lengths of color and numbers of stitches that, while not "solving" the problem, at least means I'm less surprised by my results.
Then I started spinning.
I approached choosing fiber like choosing yarn-- I paid a lot of attention to fiber type, and I chose colors in single lots, thinking I would just spin it up and it would act like hand-dyed variegated sock yarn. Turns out, not so much. The colors that I loved as pure areas in the fiber would mix in spinning, and get muddy. If I kept them clear, and plied them, I got beautiful barber poles that knit up into headache-inducing swatches of so many colors it was a wonder nobody had a seizure. I was resigning myself to spinning up unusable yarn when Felica Lo's class came to my attention... and I figured, what was there to lose?
I am really grateful to whoever put that class on the roster and available to the public. While I was initially concerned that it was a wheel-based class, and as a spindle spinner the techniques wouldn't really translate, I was very happy to discover that with very few exceptions the techniques weren't about spinning at all! More than half the class is a discussion of color theory and its application to fiber as a medium. Ms. Lo is a wonderful, soft-spoken teacher with a deep understanding of color and a clear love of all things fiber. There's a slight focus on creating striping yarn, but even within those lessons, there's so much more information available about the interplay of color and the options a spinner has to truly create unique and intentional effects.
Then I started spinning.
I approached choosing fiber like choosing yarn-- I paid a lot of attention to fiber type, and I chose colors in single lots, thinking I would just spin it up and it would act like hand-dyed variegated sock yarn. Turns out, not so much. The colors that I loved as pure areas in the fiber would mix in spinning, and get muddy. If I kept them clear, and plied them, I got beautiful barber poles that knit up into headache-inducing swatches of so many colors it was a wonder nobody had a seizure. I was resigning myself to spinning up unusable yarn when Felica Lo's class came to my attention... and I figured, what was there to lose?
I am really grateful to whoever put that class on the roster and available to the public. While I was initially concerned that it was a wheel-based class, and as a spindle spinner the techniques wouldn't really translate, I was very happy to discover that with very few exceptions the techniques weren't about spinning at all! More than half the class is a discussion of color theory and its application to fiber as a medium. Ms. Lo is a wonderful, soft-spoken teacher with a deep understanding of color and a clear love of all things fiber. There's a slight focus on creating striping yarn, but even within those lessons, there's so much more information available about the interplay of color and the options a spinner has to truly create unique and intentional effects.
not my picture. click for the link.
Having dipped my toe into the pool of color in spinning, I found myself thinking of the many projects I'd previously rejected because they were colorwork, and I don't knit that. Specifically, I was salivating over Kate Davies' designs. I came across The Fair Isle Vest, and buoyed by my experience with Spinning with Dyed Fibers, I decided to give it a try.
Once again, I was so thrilled that I'd taken the chance. Ms. Mucklestone has an open and enthusiastic manner that immediately soothed my first-timer jitters. While much of the information in the lessons is widely applicable to sweater/vest knitting in general, the specific close-up shots of holding the yarn, comparing yarn dominance, setting up a steek and finishing one (which still looks like something I'm going to want to do a shot before attempting!) and weaving in all the ends (or not) was so useful I didn't mind the lecture on the importance of gauge and swatching (and blocking). I do wish the camera angles on the close-ups had been a little more mindful of her hands blocking her actual work, but over all I was incredibly satisfied.
Once again, I was so thrilled that I'd taken the chance. Ms. Mucklestone has an open and enthusiastic manner that immediately soothed my first-timer jitters. While much of the information in the lessons is widely applicable to sweater/vest knitting in general, the specific close-up shots of holding the yarn, comparing yarn dominance, setting up a steek and finishing one (which still looks like something I'm going to want to do a shot before attempting!) and weaving in all the ends (or not) was so useful I didn't mind the lecture on the importance of gauge and swatching (and blocking). I do wish the camera angles on the close-ups had been a little more mindful of her hands blocking her actual work, but over all I was incredibly satisfied.
Resulting Projects
Spinning Dyed Fibers gave me a new perspective on how to look at the many, many braids of handdyed fiber I have in my stash-- and some ideas on how to treat them so I wouldn't end up with a muddy knit fabric at the other end. While I still don't feel a hundred percent confident about my own eye for color and color combinations, I do feel a little more free to experiment, and a little less confused by my inconsistent results.
I picked a braid from my stash-- it's a 2-tone BFL from Abstract Fiber in Laurelhurst-- and I'm in the process of trying out Fractal Spinning, which is just a fancy way of making sort of marled or tweedy stripes. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, since I'm still a rather inconsistent spinner, but I'm looking forward to finding out! My hope is to end up with two skeins of about 2 oz each; I split the original 4 oz braid in half, and then in half again, and I'm planning on making a 2-ply (which I guess is obvious since it's Fractal Spinning), so in theory, it should work.
I picked a braid from my stash-- it's a 2-tone BFL from Abstract Fiber in Laurelhurst-- and I'm in the process of trying out Fractal Spinning, which is just a fancy way of making sort of marled or tweedy stripes. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, since I'm still a rather inconsistent spinner, but I'm looking forward to finding out! My hope is to end up with two skeins of about 2 oz each; I split the original 4 oz braid in half, and then in half again, and I'm planning on making a 2-ply (which I guess is obvious since it's Fractal Spinning), so in theory, it should work.
this one is my actual photo, of the fiber that I'm currently spinning before I started.
I found Mary Jane Mucklestone's class after I'd already started looking into colorwork-- really, I would say it started with my obsession with this hat. I want to make this hat so, so badly! I'd heard from some experienced stranded knitters that it wasn't the most friendly of stranded patterns, simply due to the length of some of the floats, so I started looking around for two things: the first was a practice pattern, something that both appealed to me so I wouldn't get bored, while being simple enough to be about the colorwork and not about shaping or fit or fiber, or any of the other dozen things that make a project interesting; and the second was a really good resource about how to go about actually doing colorwork.
For the latter, I started at the library, with a book that I would recommend to anyone, and may end up purchasing when buying books doesn't mean immediately packing them into a box: The Essential Guide to Color Knitting by Margaret Radcliffe. This was a great resource for someone just starting out in the world of color, with a section on color theory, one on stitch patterns that incorporate color in different ways, and a really extensive section on the various methods of colorwork. I loved it, and I read it cover to cover. However, since I knew that my goal was stranded fair isle, on that same trip to the library I grabbed 200 Fair Isle Motifs, by Mary Jane Mucklestone, because in addition to being an extensive pattern dictionary, it includes an entire section on the history of Fair Isle knitting, how it differs from other stranded knitting techniques (like Icelandic, for instance), and on Shetland yarn and substituting for Shetland yarn (I want to make The Hat in Shetland, but I'm thinking I want to practice with something from stash).
It happened that Craftsy was having a(nother) sale around that time, and recognizing the instructor for The Fair Isle Vest I signed up for it... even though I didn't much care for the actual vest. Having taken it, I'm so glad that I did because it was a wonderful resource, and will continue to be as I start this colorwork kick I can feel coming on, but I still don't think I'll be making that vest. While I think I'd like to (eventually) try a large garment that incorporates colorwork, I doubt that I'll be making one for myself, or Devin, or either of my parents with an all-over motif. We're all, um... larger as opposed to smaller people, and with that in mind not a single one of us wears things with small repeating patterns covering our torsos. As for making something like that for anyone else... My dearest knit-worthy friends live in Tucson, Arizona. They don't wear sweaters.
For the latter, I started at the library, with a book that I would recommend to anyone, and may end up purchasing when buying books doesn't mean immediately packing them into a box: The Essential Guide to Color Knitting by Margaret Radcliffe. This was a great resource for someone just starting out in the world of color, with a section on color theory, one on stitch patterns that incorporate color in different ways, and a really extensive section on the various methods of colorwork. I loved it, and I read it cover to cover. However, since I knew that my goal was stranded fair isle, on that same trip to the library I grabbed 200 Fair Isle Motifs, by Mary Jane Mucklestone, because in addition to being an extensive pattern dictionary, it includes an entire section on the history of Fair Isle knitting, how it differs from other stranded knitting techniques (like Icelandic, for instance), and on Shetland yarn and substituting for Shetland yarn (I want to make The Hat in Shetland, but I'm thinking I want to practice with something from stash).
It happened that Craftsy was having a(nother) sale around that time, and recognizing the instructor for The Fair Isle Vest I signed up for it... even though I didn't much care for the actual vest. Having taken it, I'm so glad that I did because it was a wonderful resource, and will continue to be as I start this colorwork kick I can feel coming on, but I still don't think I'll be making that vest. While I think I'd like to (eventually) try a large garment that incorporates colorwork, I doubt that I'll be making one for myself, or Devin, or either of my parents with an all-over motif. We're all, um... larger as opposed to smaller people, and with that in mind not a single one of us wears things with small repeating patterns covering our torsos. As for making something like that for anyone else... My dearest knit-worthy friends live in Tucson, Arizona. They don't wear sweaters.
not my picture... but I miss those cacti!
What I've settled on for a practice pattern is a lovely motif from Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines, in two colors, which I can make out of blue and red alpaca I have in my stash. The original pattern is for a blanket, and I certainly don't have enough yarn for that (or patience!), but I think a pillow or possibly even a small lap throw can be eked out of the stash without engaging in a game of chicken. And while this project is going to make me practice steeking (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), with only two colors to wrangle the whole project through, I think it'll help me nail down my technique before I move on to The Hat or any other poly-colored project... Plus, it's really pretty, and stash-busting is a good thing.
this is the photo for the ravelry pattern page. click for the link.
So there you have it-- my experience with the Craftsy platform thus far. I highly recommend it, I think especially if you're a person who wants the benefit of instruction but is wary of taking a class on someone else's timeline. In fact, that's probably somewhere in their mission statement! I was really drawn in by how friendly and happy both of the instructors were to be involved in the Craftsy platform, and while the standard price for classes seems a little steep (at least, it did to me), the truth is they're like reference books-- the initial investment may be high but the continued use overtime makes every penny well spent.
Of course, I collect dictionaries.
I also watched one of the freebie classes, Know Your Wool with Deborah Robson. I've read the book this class is based on (cover to cover, over the course of a month or two. It was my bedtime reading, although I had to stop waking Devin up to show her pictures of sheep because, well, she'd really rather sleep) so the class was more review than anything else, but if you're curious about Craftsy and want to try it without buying anything, it's an interesting class.
Of course, I collect dictionaries.
I also watched one of the freebie classes, Know Your Wool with Deborah Robson. I've read the book this class is based on (cover to cover, over the course of a month or two. It was my bedtime reading, although I had to stop waking Devin up to show her pictures of sheep because, well, she'd really rather sleep) so the class was more review than anything else, but if you're curious about Craftsy and want to try it without buying anything, it's an interesting class.
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