I’m making a blanket for my son (the “Country Cousins”) and want to put his name, letter by letter in five blocks (one letter per block). What would be the best method for doing this, and how do I map it out? I’ve seen the drawn patterns one something like graph paper, but I don’t know how to read them, though I can imagine.
Also, on Amy’s intarsias video, how do you start out the different colors. Choose a joining method and go for it?
Any suggestions welcomed!!
Thanks!!
I’m really new to knitting but am working on a pattern that sounds similar and am using Fair Isle knitting, where you loop the thread you’re not knitting behind the design, then bring it back out the other side to continue the colour. It’s in Stitch n Bitch (that’s where I’m learning it from anyway).
My problem is that only part of the design uses this - the rest is just straightforward single-colour. However, the Fair Isle sections of the design seem to be much taller than the non-Fair Isle sections, so my knitting is getting warped. I don’t know if this is because I’m not doing the looping correctly, or whether it’s because I’m using just knit stitches and not stocking, or something else!
So please could someone who is a better knitter than me give me and Teeka some advice?
From what I’ve read and learned - Fair Isle should be done in the round and Intarsia should be done flat for them to come out properly. I’m fairly certain there are exceptions to these ‘rules’, but I don’t have the experience to know at this point. 
Fair Isle is for those little designs you see on sweaters, mittens, etc. Large blocks of color like letters should be done with intarsia. I haven’t done much intarsia so I can’t help with that really. Watch Amy’s videos and also check these links and see if they can answer your questions.
http://vickidesigns.homestead.com/Intarsia.html
http://sweaterscapes.com/intars.htm
Oh and AnnaT - Most knitting is taller than it is wide. The only stitches that are somewhat square are garter and seed type stitches from what I understand. You have to account for this when designing a pattern which is why knitter’s graph paper is so nice.
http://www.tata-tatao.to/knit/matrix/e-index.html