Sunday, April 22, 2012

Oh what a tangled mess we weave.......

Intarsia by any other name can be a tangled mess.  I did an intarsia sweater for my youngest grandson about 10 years ago and I thought it turned out pretty good (shown here with my niece who now has her own young one) but I just couldn't get the hang of it this time.  Enter Lucy Neatby!  Lucy was here last year teaching a class which you may have missed (I did).  Turns out, she has done a wonderful series of DVDs that are in our library.  Elizabeth R. mentioned them to me and I'm so glad I checked them out.  Each volume runs over two hours and it's like having a private lesson with Lucy.  The photography is great, the sound volume is great, and she not only gives you step by step instructions but gives you glimpses into fantastic intarsia fantasies.  Did you know that if you use the wrong color or don't like a color section, you can completely change out the color, even if you're done with the garment?  It was amazing to watch her switch out a red section and change it to blue.  Here are some of the topics in Volume 1 :

  • Chart preparation and making a shade card
  • Yarn and tool preparation
  • The first few rows
  • Living with and resolving tangles
  • Reading wrong side rows
  • Rescue techniques
The DVD is nicely indexed so you can easily return to any section if you want to review something.  I'm going to give my sweater another try and see if I can neaten it up Neatby style.  The pattern I'm using is an old one, Truck Sweater by Ann Norling which is on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/truck-sweater  Also check out Lucy at http://www.lucyneatby.com  On to Volume II.  If you've read something from our library recently that you'd like to review, just sent the review to me via email or Ravelry and I'll post it here.  Our library is such a great resource.  What have you been reading from it lately?  Post a comment below and share.