I hope everyone joins the Stranded Colorwork Knitalong - their purpose is to encourage more knitters to try this wonderful type of knitting. If you think you might want to try your hand at stranded color knitting, check it out.
It was a process for me to become enamored with knitting with more than one color. It definitely did not happen instantly. The very first stranded color knitting project I did was the Holiday Socks from Homespun Handknit. They were too large and I gave them away.
The very first time I knit colorwork with two hands was for these socks from the Stahl Socka Book Number Nine (now out of print). I forced myself to do the entire project using both hands and by the time I finished the socks I felt pretty comfortable with two-handed color knitting. I still wasn't sure about dealing with all those ends though.
I think I became hopelessly in love with stranded color knitting when I started doing Norwegian projects. I have long suspected I was a Norwegian in a former life. Here is a Dale of Norway moose sweater I made from Nature Spun sport weight. The pattern is out of print I believe but I call it the Bullwinkle sweater. DH's nickname is Moose so I just had to make it for him.
Although I don't do it often and some of the designs don't really appeal to me, deep down I think that Fair Isle knitting is the pinnacle of all stranded color knitting. I believe it is certainly the hardest to design from a color standpoint. Here is a Fair Isle tam I designed and knit in a sea theme in about 12 colors of Shetland yarn. I used the Alice Starmore article on how to design your own tam in the Threads Knitting Around the World book.
