Fun
Fruity Knitting Podcast
Dear Ann,
I was an early adopter of the Fruity Knitting podcast. It’s old school. It’s hard core. It’s a treat to see a knitter of Andrea’s skill level working on video and sharing her insights and challenges. And it’s got moments of laughter, too. It’s a good talk show that happens to be about knitting.
Episode 18 is calling to me right now, perhaps because our Field Guide No. 2 has me in a Fair Isle state of mind. I can’t remember what my first Fair Isle project was, but I remember very clearly that it was not worked in the round; on the wrong side, I had to work the Fair Isle chart in purl. O, the humanity!
At the time, I was too inexperienced to know that working Fair Isle flat (back and forth) is considered a hard way to go. But, very often, flat Fair Isle is the Rowan way, since Rowan sweaters typically are constructed of pieces that are knit flat and then sewn together. In that pre-Ravelry, pre-knitting-blog age, I just did what I was told by the knitting pattern, and it actually worked out.
(Ann, I will let our readers picture you at this moment in a soundproof room, pounding on the glass and screaming NO NO HELL NO to my cheerful spouting of Flat Fair Isle propaganda. I know, I know. Flat Fair Isle is an abomination. I will never try to persuade you otherwise. I am just expressing my own wacked-out opinion that it’s not the worst thing in the world.)
In Episode 18 of Fruity Knitting, Andrea offers tutorials on how to catch floats when working Fair Isle in the round, and also how to catch them on the purl side when working Fair Isle flat. In addition, just to really get up in our collective grill, she talks about working intarsia in the round instead of flat. MIRACLES AND WONDERS, people! Don’t try this at home!
This is edge-of-your-seat knitting. As the Fruity Knitting podcasts accumulate, I’m ever more grateful for all the work, knitting and knowledge that goes into making them. Thank you, Andrea and Andrew!
Just for fun, the knitting content—tutorials, show & tells and chat—in Episode 18 is interspersed periodically with excerpts from an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet that involves two knitters, two boyfriend sweaters, and one boyfriend. This is cinéma verité: who wouldn’t knit Ricky Nelson a sweater?
Enjoy Episode 18, and poking around the Fruity Knitting backlist for lots of other gems.
Love,
Kay
People are getting ready for our Fair Isle Knitalong over in the Lounge. Needles up on February 1!
I’ve done Fair Isle flat and, look, I’m alive! There was a reason for it which escapes me now. (Ann, stop grinding your teeth like that.)
I was an early adopter of Fruity Knitting as well. Love your review!
I’ve recently discovered Fruity Knitting — in fact, I just did a blog post recommending it yesterday, funnily enough! I loved the fair isle episode — and that fabulous Ozzie and Harriet episode 😀
I do not understand this aversion to purling and flat knitting. Where is it written that we all have to use circular needles and steeks? I have knitted very complex stranded patterns, Fair Isle and non-symmetrical celtic designs. The purl side was no more difficult than the knit side. It’s just what you are used to, I guess.
Shandy,
I’m swatching a couple of Marie Wallin sweaters with Fair Isle in the flat. Did you have any resources for purling with two hands? I am having trouble holding both strands at once.
Fruity Knitting, Episode 6, cutting a steek, Scotch involved coincidentally! Don’t have the climate to wear knitwear of this density but so enjoy learning and the great range of information in each episode.
LOVED the steek-cutting episode! Result of the final snip pretty spectacular. MDK put me on to FK a while ago. And I too am a proud patron. Andrew and Andrea are absolutely worthy of our support!
I’m a proud FK patron! Check out their Patreon page to contribute!
I have come to really enjoy stranded knitting, whether Fair Isle, Icelandic yoke, or other. I haven’t done much intarsia, but my insane project last spring was a pair of fingerless gloves from a free pattern (Whose Side Are You On?, available via Ravelry). They sport Fair Isle-type stranded colorwork in the round in blue and black….no big deal. But they also have, on the backs of the hands, a round medallion that is half Captain America’s shield and half Iron Man’s arc reactor. In red, white, blue, and black. I opted to be completely bat-sh*t crazy and combine stranding in the round WITH intarsia in the round. The blue and black go all the way around every round, because they are in the back AND front of the hand. The red and white go back and forth as intarsia, because they are used only on the back of the hand.
Intarsia in the round totally is doable. I just think maybe I’ve done it for the last time (which actually was my second, because I knitted a pair of socks with intarsia roses on the cuffs, the York and Lancaster pattern by Tsock Tsarina). I found the slipping stitches, twisting yarns, working backwards, and such got tedious quickly. On the other hand, the results are STUNNING. Those little gloves probably were my biggest knitting challenge yet, and I’ve knitted queen-sized bed sized allover lace shawls in cobweb yarn. I wore the gloves with pride to the Captain America: Civil War premiere with my Black Widow cosplay. I wear them every chance I get, because they’re awesome.
They sound incredible! Off to rav-stalk you so I can get a glimpse of ’em.
I was a huge and early proponent of intarsia ITR – at one point I had instructions for four different methods posted on my knit-blog. All it takes is hearing someone say “it can’t be done in knitting” and I’m off to disprove it! 😉
In one of Fruitty Knitting’s early episodes Andrew knitted a vest by Martin Storey that I believe was called Welk. I have gone to his website and cannot find the pattern. DO you have any suggestions on how I should proceed?
Oh Dear, I can’t spell. It’s “Whelk”, not “Welk;” “User error” as usual! Please disregard my previous comment.