Intarsia allows knitters to put color wherever they wish on their knitted fabric. Sounds great, but can be a bit scary. What if it doesn’t look good? That is in our head, and in actuality, it is very hard to make big enough mistakes to notice. Yeah, yeah, I know, Bad Christmas sweaters are the intarsia poster child. But the reason they are is that they are so unusual. You have to really go over the top to gather that type of attention.
For “Annetarsia Knits”, I asked Nancy Powell Thompson to do a section on playing with color, because she loves to do it. That is her secret, actually, it’s that simple. Nancy does lots and lots of knitting, trying things, not worrying about what will happen and analyzing what does. She likes practical swatches, as I do, and makes bags. She sent me several of them, wrote about what she felt worked and didn’t work, and her results are in Chapter 1 on pages 22-24.
One of Nancy’s ColorPlay bags
The actual pattern for the bag was cut for space when the book ran long, as there wasn’t any critical information in the pattern that had to do with the topic. But last month I took a few random bags with me to Stitches East. Village Yarn and Fiber displayed them in their booth. When I stopped by at lunch to see how things were going, I got a breathless report. Everyone wanted to buy the bags! Apparently, they could have sold them all several times over. When knitters found out the bags weren’t for sale, they wanted the pattern. Well, that was a pleasant surprise!
I love a problem that can be solved this easily. The pattern had already been tech-edited, we had photos. So I contacted Nancy with the happy news, and we discussed what we wanted to do. I suggested this would be a great opportunity to raise funds for a cause, and Nancy suggested Doctors without Borders. This is a group that I support throughout the year, so I was enthusiastic.
So, tomorrow the pattern for “Nancy’s ColorPlay bag” will be released, and proceeds will be directed to Doctors without Borders. The pattern cost will be low, only $2. So, if you feel inclined to send more funds to this group which has been swamped with crisis after crisis around the world (do YOU want to deal with Ebola?), click here to send them more! Check out Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s blog, and learn about what the Yarn Harlots “Knitters without Borders” have accomplished in aiding the organization. Let’s add some color to their mix!
Update on Nov. 7th:
The pattern is available now. Buy the pattern on Ravelry, HERE!
