Fair Game

After spending a great deal of time last year declaring 2013 would be The Year of the Quilt, I'm now thinking I may need to amend that declaration to:

I'm at a point where I want to announce I am in a relationship with Fair Isle knitting. Seriously, I just love it so much — which is a little odd, considering intarsia is a lot like Fair Isle, but I don't love intarsia in that way. But don't tell intarsia that.

I enjoy Fair Isle knitting 'cause it's like playing a game. I'm matching symbols to numbers, then matching those numbers to colors to create a design. Once I count off a stitch repeat a few times, I pretty much have the pattern down as to which stitch goes with which color. I also have a cheat sheet where I write down only the stitches that go with the contrast color. It's what I found to work best for me.

And I am discovering what works best for me — along with which motifs are most my style and experimenting with color schemes and shading  — because anything goes in my Fair Game Fair Isle Blanket! It's going to be a snuggly sampler! And one thing I have learned for certain so far: I need to chill the hell out next time I cast on the amount of stitches for a blanket. At this rate, The Year of Fair Isle Knitting might continue into 2014.