Thursday, June 28, 2012

Intarsia & some skies

To quote the wonderful Rolf Harris "Can you tell what it is yet?"

It's a swatch for a rose idea for the blanket.

I know it can seem tedious to swatch but it really allows you to see what works and what doesn't.

Not only am I experimenting with the shading on the rose, but also it is showing me how it works with the background.  As a start I'm using the shading techniques I'd use in embroidery which may turn out to be overly complicated; we'll see.

Already I can see that the background needs to be darker where it meets the lighter shading on the rose petals.

Also, one of the colours I thought would blend in well with the beige/neutrals is shrieking right at me!  In the photo it appears on the bottom left as a pale greyish blur.

The process has also reminded me how much I don't like purling when doing intarsia - now that can be a real pain!  So now I'm thinking about knitting it lengthways with each row a knit row and perhaps braiding the ends as I go along.  Of course the problem with that would be the massive amount of stitches on my needles which could be prohibitive.  I've already decided I'll be using circulars.

I'm still capturing some beautiful nights skies, each one has it's own character.

This one is from 25th June 2012.

I love the drama of the dark outline of the trees against the shimmering clouds and that dark band through the middle.

We haven't had a dramatic pink/mauve glow for a while now.

This one is from 26th June 2012.

I never tire of watching the sky change as the sun is setting.
Now doesn't this look as if you're seeing into another world?  As if a slit has opened up through which you can just peep for a few moment.

This was from 27th June 2012


2 comments:

Lisa Degen said...

Dear Susie, I have lurked your blog for about 2 years. I don't remember if I ever left a comment. I became interested as you are a knitter and a runner. I knit and my daughter is a runner, she is always trying to get me to run with her. Her longest run so far was the Phila. Broad Street run in May. She had a great time,and her running time was about 11 1/2 min. mile. I tried running with her when she started but the shoes I purchased cause shin splits my first time out and it took nearly a year to heal. Anyway the reason for writing, have you tried to knit backwards? So you don't have to purl. It may help, might be a little slow at first, but if youcan knit and run, I'm sure you can do this. :) I also have asthma and am very interested in your progress. I would like to try again, but the heat here in the states is oppressive to say the least. Not good for people with respiratory difficulties. By the way my daughter has MS and is using the running as part of her health therapy. She is signed up for a 1/2 marathon in Philly in Sept. I think I am her biggest fan, besides the other mom aged friends that she runs with. Well, thanks for letting me chat too long. Take care. Lisa

Susie Hewer said...

Hi Lisa,

How lovely to hear from you and thank you so much for the suggestion about backwards knitting. I've heard the term before but don't know what it is so I'll go and look it up.

Well done to your daughter for taking up running and please tell her that 11 1/2 minute miling is a jolly good pace. I used to work with a man who had MS and he took up long distance walking as part of his therapy and he reckoned it really helped stave off the problems.

I'm sorry to hear that you suffer from asthma too. It is grotty isn't it! I am really struggling with it at the moment and I'm going to write a post about my progress soon as I've seen that my post about the turbohaler has had a lot of views.

I hope you will have another go at running as it is very relaxing and it's a great way of getting out into the fresh air. I suffered from shin spints too when I first started running, 10 years ago now, and the Physio told me it was because I was doing all my runs on the road. Now I make sure that I vary the surface I run on and do 2 cross country runs each week.

Thank you for dropping by. Susie