We’re off tomorrow on a weekend trip to visit my brother- and sister-in-law, niece and nephew in St. Louis. I’ve been so busy this week and haven’t even thought about packing yet. Eek!
Before that, though, I wanted to share my official sneak peek of the first project for the Colorwork: 101 series for my new Vintage Knitting College! I promised to let you know ahead of time, in case anyone wanted to follow along with the pattern. It’s perfectly okay if you don’t; in fact that’s why I’m setting up the Vintage Knitting College in the first place, to serve as a continuing resource! 🙂
There’s a little taste for you. The pattern is from Bestway #82, a 1940s stranded pullover inspired by traditional fair isle designs. You can see a bit of my first swatch, the chart I colored in from the pattern, and some of the colors I’m toying with (trying to stay close to the original colors the pattern calls for). If you’re interested in the pattern, you can purchase a digital copy of the pattern booklet (which includes three other stranded sweaters) from the Vintage Knitting Lady here. Of course, the principals I’ll cover in my tutorials will apply to any pattern! I expect to start posts for Colorwork: 101 in the next couple of weeks after I get some other knitting and sewing projects off my plate. I’m really excited to get started!
Now, in the meantime, if you’re interested in a button for your blog to help promote the Vintage Knitting College, here’s several to select from! Please link it to the below page:
http://blog.bygumbygolly.com/p/vintage-knitting-college.html
I setup that page to organize all things related to the VKC in one handy dandy location, so as I dive into Colorwork: 101 I’ll be linking to posts there and keeping everything organized by subject matter. So while there’s nothing much there yet except these buttons, it will grow over time!
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And a few for those of you with non-white backgrounds on your blog:
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Anyway, I’m super excited to kickoff this project soon. Hope you enjoyed the little sneak peek!
Yay! Can’t wait for your first post! I’m going to have to figure out what I’ll be knitting knitting up first so I can follow along with you.
I recognize that yarn, too! I bought an ivory and green at loopy in that for my long lost cardigan: http://zilredloh.com/2011/05/12/learning-through-classes/
Tasha! So exciting! Good on ya girl!
Px
Love the colours! I barely knit (hope to learn one day) but I love the sight of yarn =)
Hope you’ll have a great weekend trip!
So excited! Just like Erika, I can barely knit, but I’m very eager to learn! xox
Tasha, that swatch is looking beautiful – and that yarn is making me reconsider not knitting along. I will definitely be following along for the wealth of knowledge that you will be sharing.
I’ll probably peek in at the posts but my own knitting skills are still in the uber-beginner stage that it would probably be wayyyyy over my head to follow along with, but I hope they will inspire me to learn more. 🙂
I can’t wait for you to start on the colour theory part – i’m struggling to find a nice combo 😉
I’m going to be watching from the sidelines for right now, but cannot wait to read all your thoughts on color knitting! 🙂 Out of curiosity: what would you suggest as a suitable project for someone new to color knitting? A hat? Or maybe a sweater with only a band of colorwork? I’m trying to figure out what to tackle as my first colorwork knitting project later this winter… 😉
Thanks everyone!
@zilredloh Smart cookie, you were right! 😉
@Bex It can definitely be a struggle to get a good color combo! I started to knit a swatch that looked absolutely awful recently, I’m even going to post it on my blog. You win some, you lose some! But I’ll try and talk about some good pointers for a vintage feel with colors. 🙂
@Casey I think a hat is a great starting place for colorwork! I’d particularly say a beret, because since you block it over a plate, it can remove a multitude of sins if your work is a bit puckery! Plus it’s a relatively quick project, and it’s worked in the round, so you never have to try and purl in colorwork which can be a bit of a pain! Definitely do-able, but frustrating when you’re trying to get into the rhythm of how to work with 2 colors. A sweater with a band of colorwork is a good idea too, you would just have to consider if it’s worked flat you’d be purling back across, unless you convert it to knit round. 🙂
I really love your colours 🙂 It looks smashing!
Anyway, I was wondering what yarn you are using? I can’t make up my mind which project to make, let alone what yarn to use… (and then there are the colours…)
@Spinneretta The yarn is St-Denis Boreale, a lovely fingering weight yarn that has a great palette with a real vintage feel to it. The colors I picked are not 100% exactly as they’ll be in the final product, the ribbing will be a chocolate brown instead and you can just see in the red that it’s two colors as I duplicate stitched over part of the first red I used as I decided it was too pink. 🙂
Thanks for the quick response Tasha- those are some yummy looking yarns 🙂
OOOh can’t wait to see it finished.I added the button to my blog.What pretty colors ad the swatch so far looks amazing.I think this weekend coming up I will buy my supplies and see how I do.x
I love your blog! I love knitting and everything vintage too thats why my blog name is ‘SecondHandRose’ I love the pattern and your swatch looks great. I’m very tempted to buy that pattern and knit along with you! I have a couple of things I need to get out of the way first but I’m really thinking about joining you. Just please don’t go too fast with it!! Awesome blog 🙂
XxxX
http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.com/
Great colors! I am so looking forward to this. I have decided to sort of knitalong and make Debbie Bliss’ 1940ies Landgirl Sweater. I think I found the perfect yarn and will get to buy it in 2 weeks. Off now to add the button to my blog …
I am disappointed with my current fair isle knitting… There is a bad tension at the back and therefore the knitting doesn’t have much stretch. I have to undoe it and try again and I hate doing that !