Lessons...

So, Napramach, the ill-fated Olympic Project, is knit as two sides and which are then crocheted together around the outside edges. Here's where we are at the moment:

A front and a back....(unblocked, and photographed at night, so please excuse the camera shake)...



"Wow, all that intarsia", you might say..."I bet there are a few ends that need weaving in". Well, my friends, you would be correct:



But wait! Did I mention that this was my first Intarsia project? Ever. Well, it is. And, during a trip to my local yarn store, I asked for some advice. Can you guess what I was told? Here's a hint:



If you guessed that my friendly LYS assistant told me that I needed to cut a separate piece of yarn for every block of colour that was separated by TWO OR MORE stitches of another colour, you would be correct again. That's right, I feel like a fool. This advice resulted in MORE THAN 80 yarn ends to weave in on my first piece, not to mention, major tension issues. My only consolation is that by the end of the first repeat I had deduced that something was 'wrong', and figured out a better way...



Look at it! What a disaster...can you believe an 'expert' gave this advice??? I know the next two repeats are far from perfect, but they are a hell of an improvement on the first. I've decided to rip out the whole piece and reknit it. Now I've had some experience, my tension is MUCH better, and I've also realised that I should be catching the long strands of yarn (the ones over the centre of the repeat), so they aren't just left hanging around. Lonely.

What a lesson...I'm glad I learned on this piece, and not an actual sweater. I also know to make a gauge swatch IN THE PATTERN, not just the yarn! I'll cross that Olymic finish line eventually.