Fearless Fibers Yarn

Monday Photo Time!

For today's Monday "Customer Project Photos" I have a wonderful array of photos to share with you, provided by Sandy.

Sandy has recently taken up machine knitting and has quickly progressed from the basics on to doing more advanced fairisle colorwork. As someone who owns a knitting machine myself, I can tell you that there's nothing easy about machine knitting! My machine serves mostly as an interesting modern sculpture in my knitting studio, since I have never really been able to master the thing (understatement of the year!).

All of the photos you see below were made with Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Sock Yarn. The patterned scarves were knit double-wide and then seamed, so that the stranded colors on the reverse side are hidden and the pattern shows on both sides. I'll start with two close-up photos so you can see the intricate details.

This scarf was made using the Lilac and Sunshine colorways. Sandy reports that she loves the Fearless Fibers yarns in fairisle patterns because each color shades the pattern in its own way.



This next one is made with the Midnight Passion and Raspberry colorways, one of Sandy's favorite combinations.



In this group photo taken from a greater distance, the individual colorwork can't really be seen, but it gives you an idea of the amazing array and depth of Sandy's work. In this photo, the ones on the right were knit with an antique sock machine, using a single colorway. The ones on the left were knit with a standard gauge machine using two colors.



I won't even tell you how quickly Sandy moved from learning the basics to doing more complex colorwork, nor how quickly she completed all of these wonderful projects. If I told you that, you might all run out to buy a knitting machine and I must forewarn you, as mentioned previously, it's not as easy as you might think!

Each machine has its own idiosyncrasies and they can be quite temperamental. The machine also is not a magical tool that does everything for you. It forms the individual stitches for you and can be quite a time saver in that regard, but it requires quite a bit of manual manipulation, particularly as you move into garment creation where shaping is required. Increases, decreases and such all require manual work with tiny little tools. The smallest bend in a needle - barely perceptible by the human eye and seemingly impossible to find as the source of the missed stitches plaguing you - can send you into a fit of frustration, moving on to cursing and tears. OK. Perhaps it can't do that to you, but it sure can do it to me! Kudos to Sandy for learning so much so quickly and conquering the beast! It almost makes me want to dust off my machine and take another crack at it. Almost ...

Great job, Sandy! Thank you so much for sharing your work.

And to all the rest of you, keep those Fearless Fibers project photos coming!