Fair Isle, Intarsia and more Blocking Fever!

I'm still plodding on with my blanket. 

     

In order to maintain interest I borrowed this book from the library:

    
I was after a heart motif which I found:

I also found lots of other designs which I wanted to try out. The graphs are easy to follow and there's a wealth of inspiration between the pages.

The book's also really good for advice on techniques such as weaving yarn in, in order to carry it across the back of the work and for twisting the yarns together when changing from one colour to another.

It's not what you'd call a coffee table book though, you wouldn't idly flick through it dreaming of one day having the time and resources to make the beauties within. This is mainly because there are actually no pictures of any knitting within the pages: I know; crazy!

It's crammed full of coloured graphs of motifs but there is not one single picture showing you what a design actually looks like knitted up. So I've obliged here and provided knitted samples!

If you are bored with the whole blocking story then look away now. My fascination continues and I noticed in the response to Alicia's post on the subject, there were requests to see before and after pictures. So here we go:

Before:

During:

And after:

Unfortunately, blocking can't disguise terribly ropey edges and the odd hole, but other than that it's fairly miraculous, you end up with a lovely pile of beauties like this:

Comments

[Vanessa]

WOW! I am impressed! Youa re good. I do not follow directions well at all! This could never happen in my world. Oh, how wonderful!! What do the girls think???

[Desiree]

OH MY Sarah that is gorgeous!!!!I am totally smitten by the colors and the motivs.I could never ever make those.great job!xoxo

[africankelli]

I am so impressed! I've never attempted knitting intarsia. It looks so difficult. You've done great work here!

[Ruth]

Wow! I thought they were all pictures from the book! They are so intricate, you must have such patience. Can't wait to see it all getting pieced together when you have enough blocks.

[Julie adore]

super!

[Ting]

Just stumbled upon your blog and felt compelled to say that the bird thing you made (in your previous post) is fantastic!

[raspberry]

What you are doing is so great and I'm very envious of your skills!
I love the idea of knitting, but I always have problems following instructions, so I fear I would fall flat on my face!!

[Dad]

I just don't know where you find the time to do all this as well as post progress. Very proud of my little girl!