Pre-felting, the pot holders were about 12 x 10 inches.
Post felting they are more like 8 x 6 inches. The ruler is in there for scale.
Partner is coming over tomorrow night and will get his final say in. If he likes them I'll probably leave them. But if he agrees with me that they could be better I'm going to try a new technique.
The color work for this rendition of the potholders was a mix between Fair-Isle and Intarsia. It didn't really occur to me until after I'd made it that it would be a good idea to look at online videos on how to do these techniques well. I'd learned how to do fair-isle over 10 years ago from one of those Learn-how-to-knit books that you get at craft stores like Michael's and JoAnne's. I never really liked it because of all the yarn carrying you have to do and how that bunches up the back. So until now I never did any real color work.
I pretty much made up a technique that isn't that effective for these pot-holders. And by not effective I mean there are obvious bumps and unevenness even after felting. I had thought that felting would even everything out.
Also where I seamed the boarders to the pot holders is a bit obvious since the white lace-weight alpaca I used didn't felt as much and shows through in some spots.
On the upside this is the best felting job I've ever done. So shampoo is better than the detergent I have.
But I'm getting off topic. The other-new-to-me technique for the potholder that I want to try is Double Knitting.
Every time I need to learn a new technique I go to KnittingHelp.com. They tend to have good videos and instructions. It was from this site that I learned in 2008 that I'd been doing my purl stitch backwards for years and not compensating for it when I did my knits in stockinet stitches.
So I went to the site to check how real color-working knitters deal with changing colors at the same stitch over and over. That's when I realized there was another way to do color work besides Fair-Isle that I actually like. Most color work that I'm drawn to is Intarsia style anyways, but Double Knitting allows you to knit two sides of a piece in mirror image and colors at the same time using rib stitching. From what I could gather it's adaptable to any color-work pattern so long as you want the image on both sides.
So I'm tempted to just remake the potholders using the Double Knit technique. And if I do I'll post the steps and progress. Still, I've moved on to other projects already, so maybe I'll get to this in a few weeks..
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