Inspiration
Gather Your Oddments
Dear Everybody,
Are you:
—in possession of a bunch of colorful scraps and oddments of a yarn you love?
—in search of an entertaining small project to while away a few August hours, while not taking up much room on your lap?
—wanting to learn how to do intarsia by spending a couple of fun hours with an amazing teacher and designer?
If you are any or all of these things, good news! This Friday evening, August 8, Ambah O’Brien will be giving us a virtual workshop on intarsia, using her fantastically pop art Bliss-Bloss Shawl pattern as our textbook.
I already know intarsia, and turn to it whenever my knitting life needs a jolt of splashy colorwork. Intarsia is the jazz hands of knitting! But there’s always something new to learn—and I definitely qualify for the first two groups.
Here’s my tray of delicious Atlas leftovers, plus a random assortment of Kidsilk Haze skeins that I rummaged from one of Ashley Balding’s fabulous bins at MDK World Headquarters. So shiny! But what to make with this bounty?
Also, I do need a small project right now! Something fun, quick, and colorful to cleanse the palate (and the palette) after knitting literally 50 log cabin squares to prep for filming our Knit Stars class. (It will see daylight this autumn, so stay tuned.)
I saw the Bliss-Bloss Shawl on Ambah’s Instagram earlier this year, and fell in love with it before it was even published. I’m thrilled that Ambah said yes when we pitched her for a virtual class, and I’m absolutely stoked for Friday.
I’m even getting a head start by—shock!—doing the homework.
Scrappy auditions: definitely doing double-stranded pinks for the petals, not sure yet about the center spot.
You can start your shawl, working through the plain increase rows at the beginning, or you can just show up and watch ‘n’ swatch with Ambah. Ambah says that if you don’t want to start the shawl before class, it’s fine to simply cast on 36 in your background color—you’ll be all set for intarsia.
To join us, have a rummage through your own scraps and single skeins of a worsted-weight or DK yarn. Honestly, scraps of almost any similar weight will work; your shawl will be sized according to the weight and gauge of whatever yarn you’re using.
Read all about it and sign up here.
Important Programming Note
Ambah will be beaming in from Australia, so this will be our first virtual workshop that airs live in the evening hours for those of us in North America: from 7:00-9:00 pm Eastern time.
And of course, as always, this workshop will be recorded, so you can watch it anytime that’s convenient.
Something New: If you are in Nashville, come to MDK Headquarters, where we’ll be live-streaming the workshop and watching it together on Friday. Come in time for a 6:00 pm Central start!
See you on Friday!
Love,
Kay
Perfect bite-sized intarsia!
I just finished a much more ambitious intarsia test for Ambah’s Topo Shawl (pattern is out today, go have a look!). I LOVE how it turned out (who doesn’t love an avocado?)
It really is the only way to achieve the “painting with stitches” effect. I would absolutely encourage everyone who’s hesitating at the water’s edge to jump right in.
Hi Deepa,
I love that you are an Ambah tester! That’s a strong endorsement of her designs right there.
I saw Topo and was like: we could have done that one! I love the way it will appear as washes of color when you wear it.
Ambah is great, I’ve done loads of testing for her. She’s always so responsive, and based on her tutorial videos for her patterns, I think she’s a terrific teacher. This will be a fun skill-building workshop.
I’ve talked here about supporting people who share my values. I have appreciated Ambah being truly size-inclusive for sweater patterns, and even offering yarn support to testers for the largest sizes. Now that’s walking the talk.
Ambah X MDK, two long-time favorites collaborating. Makes me happy! 🙂
Wow, that Topo shawl is amazing! Kay, you won me over. I signed up this morning. I have dipped my toes in intarsia and pick up my Scout shawl from time to time but that is the extent of it. What I love about MDK workshops is that we can watch these indefinitely. I love learning new skills via virtual workshops but am not sure it’s worth it if I can’t rewatch when I actually need the skill set. So nice to know that I will have access to this on repeat when I need a refresher. Raided my stash and am using Jane in Cameo held with a single strand of rowan kidsilk haze in an olive color. Looks lovely and feels amazing. Thinking creamy pink petals with a pop of yellow for the center.
I’ve never tried intarsia and have wanted to do so. The evening timeframe has won me over! Signing up today. Something to look forward to after a long workweek.
I love the later timeframe. Unfortunately, on Friday I have a rare conflict (a carnivorous plant tour with a horticulturist!) that overlaps with part of the class but I hope to join late. And I hope there will be more classes at later times of day in the future. I’ve started my shawl using Rowan Felted Tweed. So far, so good. Looking forward to learning intarsia!
Today is the first time I have been able to get on MDK for several days.
Is it me or have others had the same problem ?
Today is the first time I have been able to get in MDK for several days.
Is it me or have others had the same problem?
What a great ideal , i knit for my moms care home , i could make some of those ,
My knit & natter group knit hats for prem babies. One woman makes pompoms & another sews them all up.
Good day Hou do I get this I’m in Cape Town South Africa