There is a deceptive project I have been working on since before Christmas. I started around December 15 with the intention of giving it to my son for Christmas. It is the train from the Knitpicks Land and Sea Play Set (no longer available, but look on Ravelry for photos!). My son loves trains, and there is a very cute train as part of the set. I was smart enough to realize I didn’t have a chance of finishing the entire set for the holidays, but I was hoping to give him the train for Christmas and the rest of the toys throughout the year. Ha! Valentine’s Day came and went, and I might have had the engine partway done. Easter came, and I was working on the windows. After disciplining myself to work on it EVERY DAY from the start of May until his birthday on the 31, I have finally managed to finish it!
This was not a particularly fun project, but sometimes, when you learn as much as I did, it is worth suffering through. I have red marks all over my stomach from stabbing myself with the teeny, tiny metal DPNs, but I now know how to do intarsia and I-cord, not to mention the very valuable lesson of not being deceived by a project that has a small result. There must be as many stitches in the train as in a small shrug! Anyway, I would just like to share with other knitters who, like myself, are still learning: first off, when working with size 1 or 2 DPNs, buy wood ones, not metal. The metal stabs you if you hold the knitting too close to your body plus it’s hard on your hands when you’re knitting. Second, don’t let intarsia scare you! It really is not nearly as hard as people make it sound. To be honest, it’s just more fiddly because the yarns get a little twisted after you knit a few rows. But as long as you are always bringing the new color yarn from underneath, you are doing intarsia! I-cord is also not difficult so don’t let anyone scare you off.
And if you were wondering, my son does love it. The look on his face when he opened his present was worth it, and it didn’t seem to bother him at all that it came on his birthday instead of Christmas. Now I just need to get some wood DPNs and finish the other 3 toys in the set!
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