The Feral Knitter Visited the Guild November 6
Janine Bajus, the Feral Knitter, visited the Guild in person November 6. Janine, who describes herself as a color fanatic, presented “Fair Isle Knitting and Developing Color Confidence.” She has been teaching Fair Isle knitting for 20 years, and our Guild was privileged to be the site of her last workshops before she retires from teaching.
Janine recounted how she was totally confused about color at first. The color theory she had studied was not what she was seeing in yarn stores, and she had no way to describe what she was looking at.
She stressed that persistence is key to developing confidence about using color. This means swatching, of course, because you won’t know if colors will work together until you swatch. You can’t guess. She showed examples of her technique for speed swatching for color.
She also discussed what Fair Isle knitting is and how it differs from other kinds of stranded colorwork. Value movement, not motifs, characterizes true Fair Isle knitting.
Janine gave us lots of tips for successful knitting as well as helpful resources to continue our exploration of color in knitting. The best rule of all (for those of us who need an excuse to buy more yarn) was, “When you find it, buy it!”
Tina Rounsavell
