Twined knitting with two colours

Twined knitting, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

I do like swatches, but it's also nice to combine swatching with making something you can use.

The other day I saw super knitter Tålamodspåsen's phone case and thought I'd make one for myself to test a couple of pattern ideas for twined knitting.

For easy comparison I like having different versions of the same idea in a swatch, in this case a pattern with knit stitches and then with both knit and purl stitches. Not only do they look and feel slightly different, the one with purls is thicker too.

Twined knitting with two colours looks a bit like mosaic knitting, but there are major differences. In mosaic knitting you knit with one colour at a time and slip stitches to make a pattern; in twined knitting you knit with both colours and cover stitches with the strand you don't knit with to make a pattern. I haven't knitted much mosaic knitting, but it seems to me it tends to curve (depending on the pattern) in a way twined knitting doesn't. Not that it's a bad thing necessarily - I can see how it could be an effect you'd want to achieve.

All the twisting makes it necessary to unwind the two strands every now and then.
Having just one ball of yarn makes it easier: you just let it hang in the air.

Edited to add: how I wish I could draw like Mattias!

Addicted to Isager

Pacific swatch
Originally uploaded by Asplund

After buying Marianne Isager's book Inca Knits a few months ago I've been eager to knit her design Pacific. Maria suggested this colour combination, which of course was impossible to resist.

However, even though the skeins looked great together, they didn't knit up as well: this shade of white looks too yellow, so the swatch has been resting for weeks. Today I celebrated finishing Isager's "Knit and purl" sweater by taking the yarn to reliable Yll och tyll to see if they had whiter skeins of white Shetlandsuld. Of course, they did. Also, it's wonderful with a shop where they trust you to take products outdoors to compare them in the sun!

Marianne Isager is easily the most imporant designer to me when it comes to developing my skills and seeing possibilites in knitting. Knitting two of her designs fifteen years ago was a true eyeopener regarding the possibilities of knitting, above all ways to combine shape, pattern and function in clever and attractive ways. She's a master of deceptively simple, something I admire tremendously. I love her sense of colour too.

Edited to add:

I have received an award! Thank you, Caloweena! I'm supposed to write seven interesting things about myself, but that will have to wait. Or maybe there are seven things in this post already? (Too eager to wind my new skeins into balls and start knitting Pacific to think of anything. Can't even remember the names of the seven dwarfs!)

Fair Isle swatch: part two

Fair Isle swatch: part two
Originally uploaded by Asplund

The pattern is the same, but I skipped the darkest background colour and moved the red to a single row in the middle.

It turned out the way I hoped, and I like it a lot better this way: attention drawn to the centre instead of back and forth between the border edges.

Next I will play with the three shades of green in my stash.

Swatching

Fair Isle swatch
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Wool in an array of glorious colours (leftovers and new skeins I just couldn't resist) plus Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting = high time to swatch! It's a book I really recommend, primarily for the excellent pattern library section.

Not only is there an abundance of patterns, they are also arranged according to how many rows they consist of (from 1 to 19 rows plus a number of allover patterns). Starmore also encourages playing with the pattern shapes and explains how to do so in a structured way.

With so many choices it's difficult to decide where to start. For this swatch I simply picked one of the many irresistible patterns to see how the colours in my stash work together. I really like this combination of colours, but not so much my colour sequence.

The rusty red is too dominant and demands attention at both the beginning and the end of the repeat. That's too messy in my opinon, so I'm going to move it to the middle where I think it will play nicely with the warm shade of yellow. What's more, that should result in a single focal point in the centre of the repeat with the glowing colours against the undyed and beige background.

I should add that Starmore's book has many qualities apart from the pattern section. Even though parts of it may seem dated at first glance (after all, it was first published in the 80s) I would say it's a timeless book above all.

The yarn is Shetlandsuld from BC Garn; 3 mm needles (US 2½).