Fair Isle Sweater

I started on the sweater I am making my son for his birthday as per his request (isn't it nice that a young man wants a hand-knitted jumper for his birthday?).   He chose the design which is by Ann Feitelson (though the story reveals it was taken from an original design by Hazel Tindall from a jumper found in a charity shop!).

There must be a lot less demand for Shetland Wool nowadays as many of their colours are now discontinued.  I'm a big fan of all traditional techniques and crafts and always feel sad when some are found to be disappearing (as is happening with many).  I had to substitute three colours but I think it's worked out alright.  There used to be 151 colours in their range of jumper weight wool and now they have 97 (still a good number, but 54 colours discontinued, that's a lot).

This was my first attempt at the corrugated ribbing but I wasn't happy

with the colour in the middle which was breaking the run of colours

between the browns.

I ordered another colour (this was one of the substituted colours)

frogged back, and started again with the new colour:

Yes!  That's much better.

Here's where I'm at as of today:

An interesting mix of browns, orangey-pinks, orange, purple and plum.

Still a long way to go!

But I started early, I only need to finish it by May.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Kep Hat

I love Fair Isle knitting.  I love the patterns and endless colour combinations.  I find changing colours and patterns so often keeps the knitting interesting all the way through even though it's all stockinette stitch.  I also love knitting in the round which means you never need to purl and best of all, no sewing is required at the end!

Here is my hat finished.  I was only working with whatever leftover wool I had from other projects and improvising with colours as I went along so wasn't sure I'd like the end result... but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I like that you can wear the extra fabric on the side

or on the back for a different look.

I had fun making the big colourful tassel.

Keps were/are traditionally worn by Scottish fishermen.  I used Shetland wool which is renowned for being warm, strong, durable and has a "grippy" quality which is particularly good for stranded knitting.  And the best part with this wool is that you don't have to weave in your ends (there are so many!), you just knot, tear, and leave to felt into the fabric with use and washing.

I looked up Shetland to find out a bit more about the area... I didn't know it comprised of so many islands!  And that it is so far north.  There are 100 islands in the Shetland of which only 16 are inhabited, Fair Isle being one of them with about 65 residents nowadays (down from about 400 in the 1900s).

This particular pattern is from a book I recently got by Mati Ventrillon called "Knitting from Fair Isle".

There will be some more Fair Isle knitting going on as my son has now requested a sweater for his birthday.  I have made a start on it but this will take me several months to knit.  I'll be showing that in a future blogpost.  I might also make another hat or two (time and elbow permitting!), as family members would now like one too!  My son asked if I could make him a beanie version of this hat.  But I won't be remaking the same one, I'll look for different designs... or maybe even design my own as I have books that show many traditional Fair Isle patterns (peeries and border patterns) so that you can mix and match depending on the number of stitches you require.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Tea Pot and Knitting

I finally got around to purchasing Martha Ess's Tea is for Tatting book.  I had seen many examples of her pretty teapots on various blogs and kept telling myself I'd get her book some day.  Well the day is now!

Here is the first one I've tried:

The thread is Karey Solomon's Upper Atmosphere.

Cool weather is upon us.  This means it's time to get the knitting out.  Last winter I only got so far as casting on and knitting just a few rows of my next knitting project which is something I had wanted to knit for a loooooooong time.  It is Alice Starmore's Flora jacket.  Every time I saw a photo of this jacket, I thought I wanted to knit it someday.  Last year, I finally treated myself and bought the wools.  

Now I shall be torn between tatting and knitting!  But aren't the colours looking amazing?  I just had to show you.

And for some reason, the search bar tool on my blog wasn't working anymore... every time I tried to search for something (I know should be there!), it came up with "no results found".  Very frustrating. So I searched on the web, and replaced the widget with a html/javascript code.  It works.  So if you tried searching my blog before and got no results, it should work now.

Best wishes,

Cutting the Steek!

I made it to the top!  And have tonight cut the front steek so I can start picking up stitches to make the buttonhole bands.

I know most people would think scissors and knitting shouldn't be brought together, but I always find the cutting part very exciting.  It means you're nearly finished with a long-term project!

Here's just starting to cut at the bottom of the ribbing.

Halfway up...

All done!  I can now try it on.

Next it's picking up the stitches along the edge to make the button bands.

I feared at some point that I had been overly ambitious with this knit.  Because I decided to modify the pattern.  Instead of making a square sleeve (which I never particularly like the fit of), I decided to make it a raglan sleeve.  So it was a bit of trial and error.  I'm also improvising on the collar.  I have an idea in mind of how I'd like it to look.  But no pattern to follow!  We shall soon see if I've been foolish.

Best wishes,

If You Don't Hear From Me For a Bit....

It's because I'm knitting!  The weather is getting colder here and I have this very nice Fair Isle Cardigan which I thought I would enjoy wearing.... if only I got it finished!  Really, there isn't that much left:  body and both sleeves done and I'm now up to the shoulders, knitting in the round.  So I thought I would be "good" and have a go at finishing it.  Just a few more inches at the top, then the collar and button bands.

I struggle to leave my shuttles alone (and still do a bit of tatting here and there) but I will really make an effort with the knitting.

I'll try to be back as quickly as I can - I've got a big(gish) tatting project going on in the background and also there's all those Christmas snowflakes to think about!  So it's a wrench.... but back to my knitting needles I go... for now.

Best wishes,