Why On Earth Anybody Felts Intarsia?

One review I read of Nicky Epstein's felted intarsia bag asked why anyone would felt their knitting after doing such intricate colorwork.

I now know the answer.

In real intarsia I would have been forced to weave in all the ends I had left over. By felting it, I got to be lazy and trim them all off of the halfway felted bag. This is the disaster that I had on my hands after the first run through the washer.


This is how much better it looked after I trimmed it. I think that by doing it between washings I nailed it. The ends were secure enough to trim, but the second wash hid the spots that were trimmed.


Again, this is why you felt the tremendously difficult intarsia. It's so you don't bang your head against the wall when you're trying to weave approximately 8,469 ends in. This is the pile of stuff I trimmed of the bag. You know, the stuff I would have woven.


The bag is finished. I forgot to take a picture of it before I wrapped it up for Christmas. It came out pretty well considering I ran out of brown yarn and started taking apart the I-cord, then cut it way down after it was felted because it was humongous, then sewed it by hand (you know how I feel about that!). I'm even considering using the leftover pink yarn for some kind of Valentine's Day felted something-or-other. We'll see how that goes.

Here We Go Again

It has begun. I have started knitting the second side of the bag. More intarsia! Yippee!



No, really. I'm actually getting the hang of this. So, of course, that means that the second side looks way better than the first. Great.

I've decided (after the fact) that it would have been completely worth it to have copied the pattern twice just so that I could highlight what I had done instead of using the sticky note to try to keep track.

5 Feet of I-Cord Later...

I have now made it all the way across the 56 rows of floral intarsia pattern. I have begun knitting the bottom so that I can do the floral pattern again up the other side. Woo-hoo!



I have knit approximately 5 feet of I-cord.



Great. Only 2 more feet to go. No problem.

It's a Kind of Magic

They say that patterned knitting like Fair Isle and intarsia and such go faster because of the magic of watching the pattern form. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with this, but it is pretty neat to watch the flowers and leaves happen. It almost makes me forget that I have 30 pieces of yarn dangling from my work. Almost.


This is what the back looks like. In real intarsia you have to weave all the ends in. Which might be my favorite thing ever. Right up there with visits to the dentist and driving to Saegertown everyday through the snow belt.


But, hey, by now I must be done if I was halfway done the other day...

Making Progress

I'm getting the hang of this whole intarsia thing. What I've found is that you have to stop thinking about the shape of the flower or leaf or what have you. You have to think in rows.


That means you have lots of separate yarns for each color part. This makes for a big mess no matter what I try to do. Every couple of rows I straighten the whole thing out again. It's a good time. Really.


I am getting somewhere, though. I have a flower and a leaf done. I'm about 25 rows into the intarsia pattern. According to Ryan, that means I'm halfway done. I think he must have flunked math because I have to do it again on the other side. And do the bottom and the sides and the straps and sew it together and felt it. I don't think that's half.



This is testing the outside limits of my skills. I like it.

Intarsia - ish

So, I started the Nicky Epstein bag. This is the first few rows that end up becoming the casing for the dowel. No problem. Stockinette stitch with a little garter thrown in for a turning ridge. Easy. Could do this in my sleep.


Then we get to the intarsia, the floral pattern, and I want to bang my head against the wall just a little. There's got to be an easier way. I have ripped this out at least two dozen times already and I'm only about 15 rows into the pattern. I think I'm making it harder than it has to be. That, and I keep missing things because I suck at reading patterns. Basically, it looks like a big mess right now.


The actual pattern is starting to emerge, though. I can see it. I'm glad it ends up getting felted. I'm not very neat about it yet. Here's part of a flower and a leaf. Really, I swear.


I'm going to keep reading. God knows I have enough books about knitting. I ought to be able to figure this out.

Felt Up

I am taking on the Nicky Epstein felted bag from last year's Interweave Holiday Gifts issue. I actually have no idea whatsoever how to do intarsia. I have some books, though, that tell you how. I'll see what I can do. This is what it's supposed to look like. The big rip in the page is courtesy of Gracie.



Of course, I couldn't find the yarn that the pattern specifies. Well, that's not entirely true. I found some of it. I just didn't like it. Instead, I ordered some alpaca from Victoria. Then I decided I really wanted to use KnitPick's Wool of the Andes instead. So now I have a bag full of WotA and lots of extra Alpaca Yarn Co. Classic DK (darn!). Here's the WotA in the kitty-proof (and doggie-proof) bag, ready to go.



I even knit some of it together in the order it will go in to check how it felts. I like it. The picture makes it look a little bright, but it blends together pretty well. It needs to be felted a little more. You can still see individual stitches. The finished product will have to be washed probably three or four times in order to felt it completely.




When you do that on purpose, it's called felting (or more accurately "fulling"), but when you do it accidentally and your favorite sweater comes out sized perfectly for a doll...it's called shrinking.

I plan on casting on tonight to start this bag. We all know how that goes. It's on my list, anyways.