Kaffe-along 2021: Here we go!

[Kay]

Hello friends!

We are late setting up a topic in the Lounge for this epic couch-to-10Kaffe knitalong. Please forgive us!

This is the place we can gather to show and tell and ask questions as we knit from Kaffe Fassett’s simple geometric intarsia designs in MDK Field Guide No. 16: Painterly.

We will update this top post with links that you might find helpful and/or inspiring.
To start, here’s the knitalong kickoff post: The Field Guide No. 16 Kaffe-along Starts Now! - Modern Daily Knitting

And if you’re new to intarsia or need refreshment on the basic techniques, we’ve got 3 posts where you can find excellent short video tutorials from Jen Arnall-Culliford.

Little Lessons: Intarsia 101

Little Lessons: Getting Into the Intarsi-Swing

Little Lessons: Stepping Up Your Intarsi-Game

Here are some additional links to various tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way:

The Full Ball Fallacy

5 Solid Gold Intarsia Tips

Picking up stitches and i-cord

i-cord corners and buttonholes

Let the games begin!
Love, Ann and Kay

[Les]

Hi,
I am beginning the Kites Cushion. I am not using a kit but balls of Rowan wool that I had from the previous Kaffe coin cushion. It has taken me a while to sort out colors . Second row already in a mess I find Jen Arnall-Culliford videos very useful

[Les]

My mess

[T3naciousj]

I’m doing the cowl.

[Lakent]

I’ve finished my cowl - i must admit i ended up making the center box 7 rows high instead of 6 because i didn’t enjoy fiddling with adding another strand of side color - and i never thought of carrying it across on the sixth row. Making the center box 7 rows made the whole project much faster and more enjoyable for me. I wish i would have thought of doing that earlier than more than half was through!!!

[Lakent]

I also did a pillow with knitted backing and having a tough time with putting it together - the instructions say to put the right sides together and then whip stitch but that makes the i cord get in the way - so i’m grafting the back piece to the front under the icord and I’m not loving the result - Can anyone tell me what they did to connect the front and the back of the knitted pillow? Thanks, Lynda

[Lakent]

I agree the first couple of rows are the worst!!! You just have to keep going and trust that it will get better and fun after you’ve done several rows - keep going!!!

[JennR]

Fun! I’m using this knitalong as the push (shove!) I need to pick up my WIP from Master Class Field Guide 13 - I started the coins motif on the tubular scarf - and now I’m going to change it up and merge from coins into kites, stripes, wherever the Kaffe-along inspiration from Painterly and Master Class take me. Plenty of Rowan felted tweed to make a long, long tube.

[JennR]

Great color choices!

[robincomingore]

This is a bit late. I’ll blame it on the pandemic. I adapted the coins pattern to 10 count canvas and stitched with felted tweed and had finished by a LYS. It took months to get it back because of aforementioned pandemic. So many people making pillows these days. I’m in love with the results and am planning another with the villages chart. But first, my watercolor cowl.

[elanarose]

Looks awesome!! I’m getting ready to take the plunge!!

[elanarose]

By the way, for the watercolor cowl is there a reason under materials it lists BOTH US size 5 straight AND circular needles?? Are straights needed specifically for something? All I use are circular needles.
Thanks

[robincomingore]

Hi Elanarose,
I had to actually check the pattern because I hadn’t noticed the two different needles. I only use circulars too. The circulars are needed for the applied I-cord which I haven’t done yet. But they’re also working just fine for the intarsia as well.

[Melissa_J]

I am also going to do pillows out of the villages chart. Just got all my yarn today.

[MDK-Allison]

Looking fantastic! I can’t wait to see where inspiration takes you!

[nellknits]

I knit the i-cord onto the front only, then attached the back.

[Lakent]

That is what i did too - the front has the i-cord - so how did you attach the knitted back pieces to it?

[elaine99]

Are there any instructions/videos on applying the I-cord. Finished the top to the cityscape pillow yesterday. Now working on weaving in the ends. Thanks.

[franceskbanks]

Love these patterns and all the color choices. Any Kaffe is good Kaffe, I say. So much inspiration here.

[nellknits]

I first basted the back overlap together, then pinned the front and back with the wrong sides facing and used small whip stitches through the selvage edge of the back just under the i-cord of the front.
I began at the left side, continued across the top, then down the right side - then put the form in and squished it down so that it wasn’t in my way. Then I closed the bottom.