fair isle charts

I'm still visiting my parents so I haven't been knitting a whole lot but I did knit up a gauge swatch and draw a few charts. Here is my design (rough draft) for the back of the mitten:



...which looks kinda cool solarized (photoshop filter):



Last night I spent an hour studying the beautiful Fair Isle sweater in front of us at church (and cursed myself for leaving my specs at home). Mom found a pencil and paper so I could sketch out my favorite pattern exactly, the only one I could see clearly. I later charted it on graph paper:



Click here to see a larger scan of the same chart (will open in new window).

The background was black, the curved lines were pink, the horizontal line down the middle (squares with X) was celery green, and the squares with circles in them represent white. The other repeating Fair Isle patterns were also a strange mish-mash of colors, it was the craziest cacophony of color I've seen that actually worked.

Maus asked about the blue dye used on the RH wool (see previous post). I believe those shades were all achieved using RIT teal dye. The lightest blue started out as white wool. It was left in the shortest amount of time and it was the last hank to be dyed so the color was nearly exhausted when it went in. The darker colors were left in the dye cauldron much longer and they were originally light blue wool. Experienced dyers look down on RIT for various reasons, one being the issue of color fastness. I'm guessing RIT dyes should be OK for things that aren't washed very often like wool mittens and hats. (And when those are washed they are merely soaked in water, not machine washed.) I figure the mittens will wear out or be lost before the colors fade so I'm not worried about it. I don't expect everything I make to last for 50+ years. Acid dyes are better of course, no argument there.

Today I will be going thrifting while my parents attend the Seahawks game, too bad Linda's Knit n Stitch is closed on Sundays.