Knitting in Circles

So I decided I was going to try a fair isle knitting project. ( for those of you who don't know, this is a technique whereby you knit on a circular needle with 2 colours AT THE SAME TIME) One problem, I don't know the technique. I found a really nifty pattern, but have no clue where to start. Fortunately at www.philosopherswool.com they have video of the stitches required.

Unfortunately, one cannot begin to knit in the round (which is the whole point of fair isle technique) until one has enough stitches to MAKE a round! And all I can find for information is simply "knit flat until you have enough stitches to make a round" This is hardly helpful.

After much experimentation, I finally figured out how to "knit flat" using fair isle technique. It is basically the same stitches, but reversed. i.e. when knitting in one direction you "pretend" to knit with the right hand colour. When purling, you "pretend" knit with the left hand colour.

This only took me about a month to figure out! Perhaps if I was a really experienced knitter it would be easier. As it is, I can only knit and purl with maybe a yarn over for luck...

Now I have a swatch in really ugly colours started. The plan was to use left-over yarn from previous projects to practice. The next step is to get a big enough swatch to steek. This means cutting your knitting open! I think the word steek is used since EEK! seems a reasonable description of the process.

To be continued....